Couldn't They Have Just Stayed in their Universe?
by Varmint
Summary: Superheroes are already used to dealing with visitors from other times and dimensions. But having so many of these hidden blade toting, scar bearing, and rather moody men suddenly appearing out of nowhere gives them a new type of experience all together. Just what is a Templar and why do they hate them so much? Shay is the first to appear and things just snowball from there.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary:** Superheroes are already used to dealing with visitors from other times and dimensions. But having so many of these hidden blade toting, scar bearing, and rather moody men suddenly appearing out of nowhere gives them a new type of experience all together. Just what is a Templar and why do they hate them so much? Shay is the first to appear and things just snowball from there.

* * *

Most of these stories usually started out with 'Wally did it.'. If not, 'Robin and Wally did it.'. And, if by some miracle it hadn't been those two, it was 'Who left the Team unsupervised?'.

But this time around, the teenagers were safe from the Justice League scolding them and threatening to shut them down. For this time, they had nothing to be blamed about because they had nothing to be accused of.

Well, Wally was still blamed, but he really had nothing to do with it.

Even though he quickly became the sole reason why the Justice League wasn't able to return these odd visitors to their own lives as fast they had initially wanted to. That and because of all the odd twists and turns their adventure took.

They had been on a mission when it happened. A simple one that only required them to not lose sight of Green Arrow and Black Canary as those two infiltrated a notoriously dangerous gang in Star City. It was supposed to have been a learning experience for them from the two rather intelligent mentors.

But Green Arrow's disguise had not been enough to keep him undiscovered and before the Team knew it, they were saving the two heroes from being gunned down by the members of the Black Star Triad.

It was as the Team did their best to keep the two adult blondes from dying that Kid Flash noticed someone on the floor that didn't belong there. But he couldn't stop in the middle of the battle he was now in, so he did his best to keep an eye on the odd person as he fought off the onslaught from the rest of the dangerous gang of gun toting crazed men.

 _"Artemis, Red Arrow, we need cover fire!"_ Robin yelled through the mind link, disappearing into the shadows after he had knocked out two of the gangsters.

The green clad girl hid at the top of the warehouse, hidden by shadows as well with Red Arrow right beside her, and both of them fired volley after volley of arrows down on the group of dangerous

 _"Kid Flash, get rid of that machine gun. We cannot do much with it gunning us down."_ Aqualad ordered and the red head immediately ran at the biggest man of the gang, the one that held the very gun Aqualad was worried about.

As the Team continued to work together and disarm the Black Star Triad, they soon found themselves beating away the onslaught of people. And in almost no time most of the criminals were bound and gagged as the Team waited for the right authorities to arrive and take them, even though a few lucky people had managed to flee before being taken by the heroes.

Once he was sure that all of his teammates were safe and that all the criminals were restrained, Kid Flash made his way towards the back of the warehouse, where he had found the body of the the mystery person. When he got there, he found the body right where he had left it and was able to see that the silhouette of the body must have belonged to a male from the strong build on him.

"Wicked." The hyperactive red head breathed out as he neared the figure, noticing the bunched up hood at the bottom of his neck and the long type of dark coat he wore. "What's your story, bud?"

He ran over towards the man and softly turned him over, hoping to not jostle what injuries he might have sustained. And when he had finally turned the man around, he found a the face of a strong man with a scar running from over his right eyebrow down to just above his cheekbone. His dark brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail that was held together by a type of dark ribbon, but his whole face was basically covered in dirt and blood.

As Kid Flash looked him over, the boy found that the man's coat was tattered and cut up as if he had found himself in the fight of a life time and when he poked and prodded at his arms and legs and torso, found that at least two of his ribs were undoubtedly broken and his left arm was rather close to it. Blood seeped out of all his wounds and made the red headed boy think he had just sustained them a while ago.

But, aside from those wounds, this guy was armed to the teeth. Twin revolvers, a sword and dagger, some type of contraption on his arm, and a type of air rifle at his back were all the weapons Wally had seen. Who knew if he had any more on him.

Maybe he was a victim of the Black Star Triad, thought Wally as stood up with a frown.

 _"M'gann, is G.A. there?"_ He asked through the mind link, sitting down beside the man to continue looking over his wounds.

 _"Yes, he is, Wally. What is going on?"_

 _"I found a guy back here and I think he was beat up by the Black Star Triad before we could stop them. His breathing is getting shallower by the minute and I'm worried he won't be able to make the trip to the nearest hospital."_

 _"We'll be there in a minute."_

After M'gann said this, the link cut off slightly and Wally worried that his whole team had heard the conversation and were on their way to his location. But, he didn't mind because he knew they were only going to come out of the goodness of their heart.

A groan left the mouth of the stranger as he moved slightly, but after that he fell silent again and stilled once more. This worried Wally because he was now sure that the guy was completely unconscious, but before he could try to use any of the extremely limited knowledge he had on first aid, Miss Martian appeared with Green Arrow, the rest of his fellow heroes trailing behind them.

"This the guy you spoke about?" Green Arrow asked as he immediately knelt beside the stranger, going to check up on his vitals.

"Yeah, knocked unconscious. Seems like the Triad did quite the number on him." Wally nodded, then shook his head. "We can't take him to Star General, GA, he has no ID and I'm sure he _does_ have a bunch of different weapons on him. He'll get into too much trouble if we take him to a general hospital and we won't be able to find out just who he is before he's taken into custody."

Green Arrow looked at the boy with concern at those words, but still nodded and moved to pick the strange man up.

"We'll just tell Bats he's a friend if the guy asks. A random dude that tried to help us out but got hit too hard for his own good." Green Arrow told the kids as he began to move away from the spot the stranger had once been and carried him away to the Bio-Ship.

"Do you think he's going to be okay?" M'gann asked softly as she watched the stranger being treated by Red Tornado through the window in the med bay.

After Green Arrow had taken the mysterious man to the Bio-Ship, the whole team had rushed to return to the mountain and get him healed. Kid Flash wanted him to be okay because he was curious about what had happened and how he had so many weapons, and Green Arrow used the excuse that he may be a witness against the Black Star Triad once they came to trial. But the rest of the teens were just worried about him because of their caring hero hearts.

"I think he is." Artemis sighed, smiling at her friend, "Red's treating him. And we all know if anyone can fix someone up, it's Red Tornado."

M'gann smiled in gratitude at her friend's caring words, then looked up when Red Arrow and Green Arrow walked into the hallway from the mission's hub.

"I'll be leaving now. Catch you kids on the next mission." Red Arrow told them with a small wave, which made Green Arrow frown at how the boy clearly ignored him.

But the blonde only chose to let his adopted son's indifference slide and smiled at the kids seated around the hallway outside the med bay. "You kids did a good job. We were able to shut down a rather important branch of the Triad's operations and Batman didn't get angry when I told him about Mr. Stray over here."

They all smiled slightly at Green Arrow's words, but before anyone could say anything else, a loud 'CRASH' from the room the stranger was in stopped them. Kid Flash ran up to the window and his eyes widened at the sight he now found.

The stranger now stood on the other side of the room with Red Tornado looking at him with those robotic slits of his. Somehow he had managed to rip off all of the bandages placed on him in his jump and his wounds had been exacerbated enough to begin to bleed once more but he didn't seem to care as he looked from one side of the room to the window, where he found the teenagers looking at him.

"Where am I?" he yelled out with his eyes wide, "And who are you?"

Kid Flash noted the heavy Irish accent, but couldn't do anything to diffuse the situation before the stranger spoke up once more, "And where is The Morrigan? What have you done to me?"

"Please calm down and return to the bed." Red Tornado asked, taking one step towards the stranger.

It proved to have been the wrong move.

It was _so_ the wrong move.

 **So this is the first chapter and I hope you really enjoyed it! All of the main character assassins up to Shay will be front and center in this story (Altair, Ezio, Connor, Edward, and Shay himself) along with Haytham and Charles Lee.**

 **Please review and tell me what you thought!**


	2. Chapter 2

With speed that most normal humans didn't possess, the strange man jumped at Red Tornado and grabbed at his head, immediately trying his best to twist it. But when he found that the metal under his hands was nothing like he had ever dealt with before- not even with all the weapons he had used in his life nor the different types of objects he had come into contact with- the man jumped up as high as he could go and kicked the odd contraption hard enough to send them both flying backwards.

The many weapons he had once worn had been placed at a corner of the room in hopes that the man would not be dangerous or try and use them against the Team, but they had been rather stupid in leaving them there. For the man lunged straight for his weapons and turned to Red Tornado with both revolvers cocked and a confused yet dangerous gleam in his eyes.

"I am not here to hurt you." Red Tornado tried, holding his hands up in defense. "You are in the med bay, we are trying to heal you."

"We?" Asked the man and he chanced a glance at the teenagers he had seen through the glass, only to find them looking on in shock and confusion as he held the... What _was_ this thing?... At gunpoint. "Where am I and how did I get here?"

"The Team found you inside of a warehouse in Star City. You were knocked out and had sustained multiple injuries and so they brought you back so I could help you." The... Maybe it was an automaton of sorts. Maybe it could have been a creation of someone like Benjamin Franklin, if it wasn't one from the very inventor.

"This is a safe place. No one here is going to harm you."

The man turned to the new voice and found a teenage boy with bright red hair and light green eyes slowly walking into the room with his hands up to show he wasn't armed. The boy wore an odd and brightly colored suit and had a type of cowl bunched up at the base of his neck, which led the man to assume he had even taken his mask off to have him trust him.

The stranger lowered his guns only slightly, but it was enough of a pronounced movement to let Wally know he wasn't going to kill anyone at the moment and was more confused than violent at the moment.

"My name's Wally West. I was the one that found you in the warehouse." He informed the man as he lowered the guns even further. "Just what were you doing there? If you don't mind me asking."

Placing the gun he had held with his left hand down on the floor, the stranger stood up from his crouch on the floor and grasped at his head with the very hand he had just freed. He groaned slightly in pain but shook his head, "I had been following a lead for Master Kenway... I was supposed to be infiltrating the Assassin's in France when I was suddenly jumped and attacked..." Now he looked at Wally with wide brown eyes. "I was attacked on my ship, the Morrigan; have you heard of her?"

Wally shook his head regretfully, but Red Tornado now answered, "I haven't, but... What's your name? How about we start with the basics before we get to the more intricate memories?"

"Aye." The man nodded, sitting down on the cot behind him. "My name's Shay. Shay Patrick Cormac."

The high tension in the room subsided as the man calmed down and Wally smiled softly at the stranger. He hadn't mean to scare anybody. He was just scared himself. There was nothing wrong with that.

"Well, Mr. Cormac, would you allow me to re bandage your wounds? It seems you pulled quite a few stitches during the commotion." Red Tornado pointed out the new blood stains on the once white bandages and Shay at least had the decency to seem slightly embarrassed at this.

"Sorry about that."

"Nonsense. Now, if you would just stay still."

And Red got back to work with a much more subdued patient.

* * *

"Tell me, boy, what year is it?" Shay asked as he ate some of the food the teenagers had been kind enough to give him.

After the automaton named Red Tornado- it was quite the fascinating machine, really- had finished re wrapping his wounds, he had been able to meet the whole team of teens that had supposedly saved him. He was shocked and confused by everything around him: the bright colors, the technology he could begin to fathom, the fact these teenagers had _saved_ him, everything.

But he was smart enough to know to remain calm, even when he had no idea what was going on.

After Red Tornado had finished with his bandages, he had been returned his clothes and allowed to dress in them. He had scrunched his nose at the sight of the assassin's robe he had been wearing when he had been attacked, but had not complained as he put them on. It wasn't like he could find his much more comfortable an much less incriminating outfit wherever he was. Whenever he was.

The boy named Robin, who wore sunglasses indoors much like Jack Weeks did, looked up at him with a small smirk, "Did you hit your head too, Shay? It's 2011, of course."

Wally had smiled at his best friend's snarky tone, amused to find that the kid was already warming up to the stranger even with the threat he had been at the beginning, but that smile faded when he noticed Shay's wide eyed look.

"D-did you just say _two thousand and eleven_?" Shay asked, which made all the teenagers look at him with varying degrees of curiosity. "But... How can that be?" Shay asked himself now, glancing down at the bulky coat he wore. "The last date I remember is December eighth of _1760_."

All of the teenagers looked at him with wide eyes, all but Wally, who breathed out with a shake of his head.

"Okay, he's one of _those_. It seems we've got a time traveler here, guys." He informed his friends, then smiled at Shay, "Do not worry about anything, Shay, we've dealt with many of your kind before. We'll be able to figure out a way to get you home before you even ask yourself just what a pizza cone is!"

Shay looked at him with utter confusion and slight exasperation, but only shook his head and leaned back onto the chair he was currently seated on. "But the Seven Years War... It was raging last I heard."

"The Seven Years War?" Artemis asked, shaking her head. "Man, either you're really from another time period, or you've been watching too many History Channel documentaries."

Shay glanced at her with mixed emotions, but shook his head and let his head fall onto his hands.

He had been _so close_ to infiltrating the Assassin's Brotherhood in France! With the infiltration he would be able to find the Piece of Eden he had sought for so long and finally put an end to this damned race between the Assassins and Templars. He would finally be able to stop both factions from gaining the very pieces of the world that kept it together and stopped it from falling to pieces.

"Just what do you mean?" Shay asked, grabbing the kids attention once more. "By saying you've met others like me before. What do you mean by others like me?"

Wally got up from his place on the floor at Shay's feet and placed a hand on his shoulder, "I know it might be hard to wrap your 1700's mind around the idea of anything mildly futuristic, but time travel is something we've encountered about a dozen times before." Wally informed the man, who didn't glare at the kid because of how confused he was. "About two of them were from the past, but most usually come from the future to warn us of a terrible fate if we don't wise up." Wally shrugged.

Now the boy named Kaldur that had once stood off the to side in silence made his way towards Shay and Wally. "I- _we-_ cannot tell you that we understand your situation fully and can help you, but I can _assure_ you we will do our best to get you back to your own time."

Shay couldn't say he fully understood what was going on. He was beyond confused and he noticed that the only reason he had yet to try and find the Templars in this world was because he was in shock at all the new things that now surrounded him. The world had changed so much in the few two hundred years that had passed between his own time period and now.

"That's... That's nice of you, lad." Shay sighed, "Thank you for being so kind to such an ungrateful guest such as myself."

"Nonsense, Shay!" Robin jumped up with a broad smile, "Like Wally told you, we're used to random people popping up out of the _strangest_ corners of the world. You're actually one of the nicest guests we've had!"

The dark haired man smiled slightly at that and Wally noted how his scar crinkled up around the edges of his eyes, but they weren't able to say anything else because of a sudden flash of light appearing right in front of them and dumping a man with a gray hoodie and faded jeans right in front of their faces.

The man groaned as he rolled onto his back, showing a face with a scarred lip and slight stubble along his jaw.

All the people in the room immediately ran towards him with worry and wonder, but as soon as Shay laid his eyes on the tattoo on the stranger's forearm and the hidden blade on his right arm, he glared at the man and stopped the kids from getting any closer.

"Don't get too close kids, this man's dangerous."

M'gann looked from the man with the scar on his eye to the one with the scarred lip, and asked, "But aren't you from another time period? This man looks like h's from our own time period. How would you know he's dangerous?"

Shay's eyes narrowed dangerously as he sneered at the groaning man on the floor, "I would know an assassin anywhere, any time. And this man is just that." Then he looked at M'gann with a type of harshness in his eyes, "Assassin's can't be trusted, kid. They're greedy and have no values whatsoever."

"Oh..." Groaned the man on the floor, turning everyone's attention back on him. "Rebecca owes me _big_ time..." He said, eyes wide as he looked at the people that stood over him.

 **Hope you liked it and can't wait to see what you have to tell me! Please review ad tell me of any worries or doubts.**


	3. Chapter 3

"An assassin? Are you sure, Shay?" Asked Robin as he looked up the adult's arm and at his face, which read of worry and hostility, "I mean, I've met quite a few of their kind and he doesn't really seem like one. Much less a dangerous person."

The Irishman looked at the teen with surprise clear on his face, "You know of the Assassins? But... No one outside of The Creed should know of them..."

The last bit was whispered more towards Shay himself that the kids, but they still heard it. And they were confused by just what the man could have meant with 'The Creed'. But, even with their confusion about it, the kids instead decided to focus on the man that had appeared out of nowhere.

"What is your name?" Kaldur asked the man on the floor.

Even though he had wanted to help the man up, Shay seemed truly worried about their well being. And seeing how Shay had proved to be just a confused man out of his own time, the Team was more inclined to trust in him than in this new stranger that had somehow bypassed all security the Mountain held.

The man had been looking at them all with confusion and worry in his own brown eyes, but shook his head and smiled as warmly as he could in hopes that they would hear him out.

"I'm Desmond Miles. And I know you're most probably what I'm doing here, and I'll be more than happy to explain it to you as soon as I've finished talking with your friend over there." He told them, pointing at Shay.

Shay sneered at the man and shook his head, "Whatever you have to say to me, you can say in front of these kids, _Assassin._ " He spit out the word as if it burned his mouth to even utter it, and the man supposedly named Desmond scrunched his face up in confusion.

"You're an assassin too, aren't you?" He asked, face reading of just how puzzled he was by Shay's demeanor. "I mean, you just have to be. Look at your clothes!"

Shay knew that the man's assumptions made complete sense, even though the kids beside him were completely lost by the turn the conversation had taken, and his lack of proper attire bothered him once more.

It pained Shay to admit this, but maybe it was the right thing to do to play into the man's assumption. He was clearly an assassin- the hidden blade strapped to his arm was a clear indication- and he seemed to already have some type of trust in him just from having seen his clothes. So Shay shook his head slightly and allowed a loose smile onto his lips, his whole demeanor changing.

"I'm sorry to inform you, but I'm not from this time period." Shay told him as he crossed his arms.

Desmond quirked an eyebrow at the sudden change, but instead smiled and didn't question it. "That makes sense! Of course you won't trust me just from seeing me!" A loose laugh escaped his lips and Shay actually started to feel bad for the guy. "I'm Desmond Miles, an assassin from the more modern times." He explained as he finally got up from the floor.

Shay eyed the hand that was then offered to him, but breathed in and took it. If he wanted the kid to believe he was an assassin, he'd have to act like one. An act he completely loathed.

"I see you two are now getting along." Noted Kaldur, giving Shay a curious look, but didn't question the man's sudden change of heart. "But I would thoroughly like to hear just how you managed to bypass all of our security, Mr. Miles."

Desmond glanced at the kid one second, looked at Shay with a smile, then seemed to notice what Kaldur had said and turned fully to him. "Oh, right! Sorry about that! Look, I know you'd like me to explain everything as soon as possible, but do you think you can give me a few minutes with- what's your name?"

Shay quirked an eyebrow as Desmond addressed him once more because it was just odd to him for a grown man to be so incredibly odd, but still answered, "Shay."

The younger man smiled at that because he thought that Shay was slowly starting to trust him, then turned back to the kids, "Just give me a few minutes with Shay to explain some things to him really quickly. I know why he's here and how he got here, but there are more like him and we need to get them all together so we can return to our own home."

This immediately caught Wally's attention, "More of you? You mean... Assassins?"

At this word, it seemed that Desmond immediately sobered up. "Yeah, but this whole business isn't for children. The matter is one that the less people know about it, the better."

This was the wrong thing to have said if how the teenagers all reacted was any indicator.

"Excuse you, Mr. Miles," Said the girl named Artemis respectfully, only to glare darkly after having been so nice, "We are _not_ children. Get that straight right now if you don't want an arrow through your knee."

Desmond's demeanor actually sobered up at the threat, and he looked at the kids in all seriousness.

"Maybe you're not. But what I have to discuss with Shay over here is something that cannot be overheard by you. It cannot be overheard by _anybody_."

Conner, though, shook his head at this, "You're not going anywhere." He growled, glaring at Desmond, "You appeared out of nowhere and infiltrated our hideout. You are not credible and you have no rights here."

Desmond was clearly surprised by the harshness in the teenager's voice, but Wally stepped in before Conner could cause too much damage, "What Conner here means is that you have to slow your roll and calm down a bit, Desmond. Shay here is injured and we don't want to put much strain on him. And we would like to question you a bit before we allow you too many liberties."

The red head had smiled as kindly as he could and had hoped that Desmond would listen to him without too much resistance, but the man only shook his head with a defiant air about him.

"Listen, kids, right now there are too many things at stake for me to take anything slow. I don't have time to answer questions nor do I have time to play hostage to a bunch of tykes. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be taking Shay with me so we can discuss in private." Desmond told Wally, crossing his arms as he stared down at the children in front of him.

The kids did not take too kindly to those words.

"We are not the ones that will be doing the listening, sir, but instead you." Kaldur said as he took a step forwards, immediately taking on the leader role to take control of the situation. "Right now you are on private and restricted property and can be detained for trespassing. We have been nothing but understanding since you inexplicably arrived in our home but we shall not accept you insulting us by calling us kids."

And Robin stepped up beside the dark skinned Atlantean, "The last guy that called us kids ended up regretting it. Do you want to regret it, Desmond?"

Clearly, Desmond was surprised at the ferocity the kids had mustered up, then exhaled in exasperation and threw his hands up in the air.

"Okay, you guys want to know what's going on? I'll tell you!" He huffed, then pointed at Shay, "That man is not from this time period."

M'gann softly cut in, "I thought we had already established this."

But Desmond only ignored her and continued speaking, "But that's the simplest thing to explain. Actually, no, it's not because I'm not even sure how he managed to get here, but... He and I are from the same world. And we do _not_ belong here."

There was a pause in Desmond's words as he waited for the kids to internalize the information, then Zatanna spoke up, "Of course you guys don't belong here. You're on private property."

Shay smirked slightly at the dark haired girl, but turned his attention back on Desmond when the other man huffed in annoyance.

"That's not what I mean! Listen, I can't explain it right now because I don't know _how_! But I can tell you that if I don't complete my mission as soon as possible, _both_ our worlds will be in huge danger!"

Shay was immediately rocked by worry at those words, but the kids took all of it in stride.

"And he's one of _those_!" Yelled out Robin, shaking his head, "Should I call Arkham up? I'm sure if I tell them he's a special case picked up by Batman, they'll admit him without too many questions."

"Arkham?" Asked both Shay and Desmond, but the kids continued speaking to each other.

"Maybe we should listen to him, Rob." Zatanna told him softly, "It's not like this would be the first time we've had visitors from another time or another dimension."

Wally rolled his eyes, though, at Zatanna's thought, "Zee, we already trust Shay because he was injured and hurt and he's proved to be nice to all of us. Desmond, on the other hand, has only been a trespassing jerk since he got here and is already trying to kidnap our new friend!"

"Kidnap?" Shay and Desmond gasped out together once more, Shay because he was surprised at the idea, and Desmond because he could not believe how dense the kids seemed at the moment.

"Guys, have we forgotten we have a mind reader in our midst?"

All of the teenagers stopped talking at that moment- they had begun to speak over one another to try and convince each other of their own point of view- and looked at Artemis with different emotions shining on their face. But M'gann only smiled at her friends and took a step forward.

"I can confirm Desmond's story in no time if you guys agree to it." She told them, then Wally smacked his head, "Hello, Wally!" with a smile.

M'gann rolled her eyes at him mocking her, but still walked towards Desmond. He eyed her with uncertainty, but didn't say much as he kept his arms crossed.

"If you would allow me, Desmond, I would like to probe a bit at your mind." She informed the man, smiling as sweetly and comfortingly as she could.

Desmond, though, quirked an eyebrow down at her, "This girl is green." He said as he pointed at her. "Is no one going to question that?"

Shay had at first questioned this as well, but only in his mind and not out loud. He had just guessed it was a future thing he would not need to understand.

"Do you give me permission?" She asked again, growing slightly annoyed with the man's denseness.

"Are we seriously going to ignore the fact that this girl is green?" He asked, looking around the room. When he saw that all the kids were unimpressed with him and noticed Shay shrug, he shook his head and tried, "You do know that mind reading is not possible, right?"

"That's enough of permission for me, Megs!" Called Wally with a sigh, "Let 'er rip."

Much to the man's surprise, the girl's eyes began to glow a bright green and in no time he felt _something_ inside of his mind. But it was nothing like with the Animus, it was a whole 'nother sensation, one he did not like. Memory's of his last minutes in his own world were pulled into the forefront of his mind and he was made to relive the last moments in which Rebecca and Shaun explained his mission to him and just how serious it was. Then, as if that memory garnered some questions, he soon found himself reliving the last few months with the assassins and everything he had experienced in from the beginning until only a few hours ago.

Luckily for him, the unpleasant feeling of another presence in his mind lasted for what felt like only a few seconds and in almost no time he was back where he had once stood, with the green girl standing in front of him, a frown on her face.

"Guys, he's telling the truth." She told her friends, voice having taken a much more serious turn after finding out the truth about the seriousness of the situation. Then she turned to them, "The mind link is going up."

Once more her eyes glowed green, but this time Desmond didn't feel anything in his mind. Instead, he saw all of the kids go still for a second, then maintain silence as the girl's eyes glowed green. Both Shay and Desmond stood in silence as they watched the teens have what looked like a quiet conversation with each other, then the girl's eyes returned to normal and all the teens seemed to be in a much more somber mood.

"We believe you." Kaldur told Desmond, looking the man straight in the eyes. "But we cannot allow a killer like you to run loose. Unfortunately, Shay," Kaldur said, looking at Shay with darkened gray eyes. "Now that we know what you really are, I am saddened to say we cannot allow you too many liberties either."

"And why is that, Kaldur?" Asked Shay as he crossed his arms.

And at this Kaldur's eyes narrowed, "Because we are heroes, Shay. And nobody has the right to take the life of another away."

Shay quirked an eyebrow at this, but didn't try to defy the kids wishes. They had been nothing but nice to him since they had met and he was not about to bite the hand that fed him.

"We shall help you recover whatever it is you have lost, Desmond," Kaldur continued, turning to the man once more. "But you shall not be allowed to leave this Mountain without one of us with you."

"Does that mean I'm basically stuck with you guys as my babysitters?" He asked with a smile, but that faded as soon as Robin answered.

"It'll be fun to mess with you, Desmond." The teenager smirked, "I'm not allowed to screw too much with my friends' minds, but I'm sure Kaldur would not object to me playing with a killer."

 **So this might be confusing to you right now, but all shall be explained later on!**

 **Please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

"Is this kid for real?" Desmond asked Shay, completely incredulous at the bold actions of the teenagers in front of him.

They dared call him out on his actions? And they dared judge him, even though they did not know him at all? Just into what world had he gone and how fast could he leave it?

"I think he is, lad." Shrugged the Irishman with his arms crossed. "But don't question them. They _are_ native to this supposed new world we are now in."

Desmond looked at the man in disbelief, "Wait, you don't believe me? Dude, we don't belong to this world!"

Shay only shook his head, though, "I've apparently traveled through time. But there's this small voice in the back of my head telling me I'm probably suffering a concussion, hence these hallucinations."

"Fine!" Desmond yelled out in exasperation, "I don't care if you believe me because I need to stop the end of the world! From now on until we leave, you cannot leave me, got it?"

Shay quirked an eyebrow at the demand, but kept a straight face and restrained from answering. Robin walked towards Desmond then, and motioned for the man to follow him, "You have a type of tracker, right? I'm sure if we can hook it up to the main computer we'll be able to find those supposed people you need to find much faster."

The modern day assassin looked down at the teenager for a moment, then sighed with a shrug. "Sure. Just show me where to go."

"I shall accompany you both." Kaldur informed them, walking up to the two.

Robin nodded at his leader, then turned in the direction to the main computer hub. "Follow me, Desmond."

After this, all three males walked away towards the hub and left Shay with Artemis, Conner, M'gann, Wally, and Zatanna. The teenagers were silent for a moment as they looked at Shay with trepidation and worry, but soon enough Wally groaned in exasperation and took a step towards him, signalling at the man.

"I don't really care what Kaldur and Robin say, guys! We know that Shay has been nothing but kind to us since he got here and we have no reason to not believe in him!"

Shay quirked an eyebrow at the sudden declaration, but didn't ask why the boy had said it. Instead he walked towards the group and stood in front of them, silently telling them with his eyes that he would like to know what was going on.

"I know that's what you feel, Wally, but Kaldur and Robin both have a point." M'gann told her friend in a soft voice. "If what we saw inside Desmond's mind is true, then they _both_ are dangerous people."

"But that doesn't mean they are dangerous for _us_." Artemis sighed. "Listen, Megs, sometimes people have to make hard choices. The world isn't in black and white."

"It is when it comes to killing." Conner bit out, eyes narrowed at Shay. "Like Kaldur said, no one has the right to take the life of another. That is above our powers and rights."

Honestly, Shay had no idea what was going on right now. He understood that they were talking about his own lifestyle- or, at least, the one they believed was his own- and they had taken sides between their stance on who was right and wrong, but he could not understand just how they had gotten so far into such a conversation without having uttered many words before. They had only stood looking at each other, as if having a silent conversation.

Well, at least he could see that the blonde spitfire known as Artemis was leaning more towards listening to his side of the story before judging, much like Wally. But M'gann and Conner both seemed to be following in Kaldur and Robin's footsteps without weighing in on the more personal and private aspect of having become an assassin. Zatanna, though, seemed to be caught in between and didn't quite know what to do with herself as she saw her four friends fall into a slight argument.

"What do you know about life, Conner? You were grown in a _pod_." Artemis retorted, rolling her eyes. "You don't know just how hard life can get to drive one to kill."

"Oh, and you _do?_ " Conner growled back, clearly having taken the pod comment much harder than Artemis had anticipated.

Artemis' gray eyes looked down at the floor, then whispered, "Remember who my dad is?"

The soft and somber tone surprised Shay, and it clearly affected her friends for they all looked down at the floor and became silent. Shay could tell the conversation had taken a turn the kids had not anticipated, one that brought much melancholy to each and every one of them, and he could not stand it. He may not understand what was going on or just why he was in such a strange place, but he had never been one to take anything laying down. And he wouldn't start today.

"I don't understand what is going on." He started, managing to garner the kids' attention once more, "I am nowhere near where I last stood and have no idea what is happening. I do not know who any of you are and I don't understand many of these places you are saying-"

"We could teach you, if you'd like." Wally interrupted, smiling at him while gaining a frown from Conner at the same time, "I know the geography of the world in your own time is not the same as what we have now."

The proposition had sounded nice to Shay, but he only shook his head, "If this really is the future of my world, I don't think it is my place to learn too much of it. And if what that Desmond said was true, then this world isn't even my own- bollocks if I know what that means-" He whispered to himself, then turned back to the kids, "But even with all my own confusion, I want you kids to understand one thing: sometimes what seems to be the right thing to do is not the easiest." Then his mood darkened upon thinking of his own experiences, "And at other times, it's not even the right thing to do."

They all listened with rapt attention then clearly digested the words, each one turning the meaning behind them in their minds while trying to find a way to best understand them and make them their own. Shay was proud to see that at least this youth tried to see more than just one side of the story and had listened to him even after knowing only a small bit of his time with the Assassins.

"Are you a killer, Shay?" Zatanna asked, and it hurt to hear the small bit of hope in her voice that spoke of her hoping he was not.

But Shay was not a liar and he was not about to start doing that now. Though he did look away when answering, "Aye."

The answer, though, seemed to have been the one they were expecting because they didn't fully react to it. Zatanna, though nodded softly and looked away from the Irishman.

They all stood around in silence for one more time until Wally broke it once more.

"You know, I know you've most probably had a hard life and whatnot, Shay, but I feel like we've gotten much too serious and given you the awesome hospitality I know Young Justice can give." Wally told the man, a sly smile slowly appearing on his face.

"Really, lad?" Asked Shay, "I don't really mind."

"Nonsense, Shay!" Remarked Artemis, suddenly appearing beside him to wrap her arm around his own. "M'gann, would you allow Shay and I to take a quick ride on the Bio Ship?"

M'gann became flustered at the very prospect, though, "Artemis, I can't let you go with Shay alone! I'm coming with you!"

Conner's eyes widened at this and he took one step towards M'gann, "Well, if you're going, I have to go too. I'm not letting anything happen to you!"

Wally yelled out in annoyance at this, "But it was _my_ idea to have some fun with Shay! Stupid thieves." He muttered to himself as he turned away and crossed his arms, lips pursed.

"How about we _all_ go on a ride in the Bio Ship?" Zatanna asked in an almost diplomatic way, stepping up to stand in between all of her friends. "You shouldn't be fighting over something so childish, guys. How about it, Shay? Wanna come with us on a quick joy ride?"

The fact that the kids had all fought over something so, as Zatanna had said, childish had slightly worried Shay, but by the way Artemis and Wally were looking at him, he knew he couldn't say no. So Shay just smiled at Zatanna and nodded softly.

Before he knew it, the Irishman was being dragged away by a hyperactive Wally and excited Artemis, all the while M'gann, Conner, and Zatanna followed close by.

After they had all left the main room and gotten into the Bio Ship, Robin, Kaldur, and Desmond walked into the room to find it deserted.

"Um..." Blinked Desmond, looking all around the room, "Weren't your teammates right here just a second ago?"

Kaldur breathed out and shook his head, all the while Robin sighed in slight irritation.

"Ten bucks say they went on a joy ride." The young bird bet, which made Kaldur only look up at the ceiling in annoyance, "Couldn't they have stayed put for just a minute longer? We could have begun our mission if they had just waited."

"We could still begin it." Robin shrugged, glancing at Desmond, who was internally freaking out over where Shay had gone. "I mean, we have the coordinates of the first guy _and_ we have Desmond to explain everything. Besides, I'm sure you and I can take on any type of complication that could arise."

Kaldur looked at his young friend for a moment before sighing once more and motioning for Desmond to follow them, "We shall take the Zeta Tubes. Now, where was it that the map said we would find this person?"

Desmond followed after the two kids with much confusion in his mind, but still answered, "A place called Gotham. At..." he looked down at his phone, which had all of the information he needed on it, "Something called Arkham Asylum."

Much to his bewilderment, both kids groaned and Robin cursed their fate. "It just _had_ to be Arkham."

Kaldur nodded, though, and said, "I believe it would be best if we suited up, Robin. I am sure the guards would take us more seriously if we did."

"Yeah, yeah..." Robin waved his friend off, "I just hope B doesn't hear about this."

"So do I."

 **Hope you liked it and please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

On the ship, Shay began to see just how odd but oddly well functioning the kids could be. M'gann was at the helm, even though the kids had called it a 'pilot's chair', and the rest of them were seated all along the windows of the ship, enjoying the midnight sky they found themselves under. Shay had been seated to M'gann's right, with Conner behind him and Wally a few feet away from him, for the red head was seated at the very nose of the vessel. And Artemis was to M'gann's left, smirking at Shay every time he looked back.

"Where are we going?" Had asked Shay, looking around the ship with disbelief.

At first, he had been dumbfounded with the technology he was surrounded by. The most advanced ship he had seen his life up until that moment had been the Pieces of Eden but those were an easily explainable oddity. They had come from a civilization long before humans came to the Earth and so it hadn't surprised Shay too much to have been in presence of those.

But what he found himself inside now was much too weird for him to maintain all of his composure. It was a ship, but there was no water surrounding it. There were no veils and there was no type of technology to be used to move forward. Yet, as soon as the back door had disappeared into the ship itself- just how did that happen?- they were airborne and _flying_.

Shay had been accustomed to the sensation of flying because of the many leap of faiths he had performed in his life. But this sensation was much too new and weird for him to have enjoyed it initially. He had no idea just _how_ this thing was flying, the contraption was _huge_ , but after Wally and M'gann had explained a few basic concepts of new age science and had assured him they would not fall and crash, the Irishman had been able to relax, if only slightly.

Now a few minutes had passed and they had soared all through the sky and Shay had begun to actually enjoy the sights he was surrounded by because he had just decided to not question too many things of this supposed future and just look around and take in everything he possibly could.

"So, tell us, Shay." Wally spoke up after a few minutes of silence in which the whole team enjoyed the sight of the night sky before them. "Where are you from? What's it like in your life?"

Shay quirked an eyebrow at the question, but thought back on his childhood with fondness and answered, "I'm from New York and my parents were Irish immigrants."

"Hence the heavy accent." Artemis noted and Shay nodded at him.

"Aye. My mom died giving birth to me, but my dad was a hard working and honest person, even though he was barely ever home. I was mostly raised by my aunt." The man continued his story, just skimming over his early life and the death of his father because he didn't want to get too into the subject. M'gann, though, seemed taken aback with how much ease he had said that, "I grew up rather well and had a best friend that I trusted with my life, until I couldn't. Some things happened, I fought in the Seven Years War, and finally I got to the year 1760."

Wally and Artemis hadn't liked Shay jumping so much of his life and being so vague about it, but they at least knew enough people with bad pasts which made them more aware of people not always wanting to go into full explanation of their life. Conner and M'gann took the information as it was and didn't think much further, but Zatanna was a curious person and wanted to find out more about Shay before committing herself to trusting him or being wary of him.

"If you don't mind me asking, Mr. Cormac," Zatanna spoke softly, making him look at her with slight curiosity in his eyes. "Just what are Templars? And-and Assassins too. You seemed so wary of Desmond at first, but then you changed your whole demeanor around. I don't understand it."

The lighthearted mood around Shay changed when he frowned at look towards the outside of the ship once more, eyes hard as he looked at the stars in the sky.

"Templars and Assassins are two warring factions in my own time. They have fought since the dawn of time and neither will stop until the other is obliterated from the face of the Earth." His voice was hard and cold, "From what I took from Desmond, I believe they have not stopped fighting even now in your own time."

 _"Guys, I don't think we should ask Shay too much about this."_ Wally told his friends through the mind link, looking over to M'gann.

 _"But if we want to understand him and be able to trust him, we have to understand just why he had such a complete mood change with Desmond."_ M'gann answered as she looked at her fellow red head.

 _"I don't know, Megs,"_ Zatanna looked at her with wide eyes, _"Shay doesn't seem like_ _he's in the mood for us to continue questioning him. At least, not when it comes to the whole 'Assassin' thing."_

Conner's eyes narrowed at the girl's words, though, _"If you really want us to trust him, Zee, we should ask him about everything. Including why he was so mean to Desmond at first, then calmed down."_

 _"Fine. But I'll do it. None of you have any tact."_ Zatanna grumbled inside her mind, then looked at Shay. "Mr. Shay? Are you an Assassin? Or a Templar?"

His body tensed at the question and his jaw tightened, but the man managed to look at the kids with just a bit less harshness in his eyes. "I believe I am a Templar, kids. But must we continue with this line of questioning?"

Conner answered before any of his friends, "Listen, Shay, we _want_ to trust you. And to do that, we need to know who you are and what you do."

Wally sighed at the harshness of Conner's voice, then smiled at Shay. "I already trust you 'cause you're a cool guy, Shay. But I'm sure if one of our mentors heard you were a killer, they would not hesitate to throw you into a cell until we found a way to return you to your home."

Shay frowned at that and was about to answer the kid, but M'gann interrupted him. "I'm getting an alert from Uncle J'onn. There is a disturbance in the town besides Happy Harbor. He is wondering if we can take care of it or if he has to contact a member of the League."

Wally smiled broadly at this and jumped up from the seat he was on, "Tell you're uncle we'll go!" Then he turned to Conner, "Taking Shay with us will prove he's _totally_ trustworthy."

"Wally, does that seem safe to you?"

The red head blinked at the blonde girl, "What do you mean? Of course it's safe!"

Artemis groaned with a shake of her head, "Wally, Shay is _injured_. He'd be more of a liability in the battle field than anything else!"

Shay bristled at the thought of him being _weak_ but didn't question her reasoning. He was injured and he wasn't at one hundred percent.

"I don't meant for him to get caught in the fighting, Arty!" Yelled Wally with a smirk, "I mean if he actually cares for us, if we get into some kind of predicament, then he'll help us in a smart manner! And if there's no need for him, we can just test him later on!"

Everyone in the ship except for Wally himself looked at him with pure confusion and annoyance. "Is this boy right in the head?"

Wally giggled at Shay's question, but shook his head, "I'm as fine as I can be, Señor Irishman! Now, M'gann, take this ship to where your uncle needs us! Just trust in me, guys!"

M'gan and Conner exchanged wary looks and Shay began to wonder if he had made the right choice coming with the kids, but Zatanna spoke up. "For once, I don't think Wally's lying or _trying_ to get us in trouble." She told them all, then smiled at Shay, "I say we give Shay a chance."

There was a moment of silence, then M'gann sighed and shook her head, "My friends are all insane and I'm insane enough to listen to them." Then a pause and she smiled at Wally, "I've sent my uncle confirmation. ETA, fifteen minutes."

"Whoo!" Wally cheered with a jump and a fist pump, then turned to Shay. "You won't regret it, Shay! Now's your chance to prove you're trustworthy!"

Just what had he gotten himself into?

* * *

"Okay, you see, Fish Sticks? All you needed to do was trust me." Robin smirked at his leader, who frowned and sighed.

"Robin, we are breaking into Arkham. Is this what my trust in you should garner?"

Robin clicked his tongue with a shrug, then looked behind him in the air vent at Desmond, "How you holding up back there, buddy?"

The man was just small enough to fit into the vents, but much too big to be as comfortable as Robin clearly was. "Horribly." He grunted out, then asked, "How much longer until we reach our target?"

Robin glanced down at the holo-computer at his wrist and said, "Just a bit more, Desmond. We're gonna come across an opening right here and that's where your phone said. Could you please explain to us just what we're going to find when we get to your target?"

Kaldur's ears perked up at that because he too wanted to know just what they would find.

The man sighed and relented, "A person. Like Shay. He'll either be from the Renaissance, the Crusades Era, or Revolutionary America. I'm not sure which one it is, though."

The younger of the three sighed softly while Kaldur shook his head at the uncertainty in the man's voice. But they all continued on their way without too many problem and once they had reached the opening Robin had spoken of, the three fell down into Arkham's indoor yard, where the guards took the best behaved inmates for peace and quiet.

Inside, Robin noticed a man wearing a heavy white coat with red accents on it and his hood up, but he couldn't really pinpoint to what time period he should have belonged.

"Oh. We'll be fine, guys. It's just Ezio." Desmond breathed out a sigh of relief at that as he wiped at his forehead. "I'm just glad we don't have to deal with Altair just yet."

Both Robin and Kaldur looked at him with slight confusion, but the dark skinned only shook his head and took one step towards the man they had looked for.

"Ezio, I presume?" The teen asked, acquiring the man's attention. "If you would be so kind, would you mind coming with us?"

Once the man was looking at them, the three could see shock and alarm in his eyes and when he opened his mouth, all three waited for him to either ask what was going on or where they would be taking him. None of them had planned on listening to the string of Italian that escaped the man's mouth.

 **Please review.**


	6. Chapter 6

Both Robin and Kaldur stared wide eyed at the frantic man, who was clearly agitated by his new surroundings, although Desmond was only frowning.

"Dang... This means I owe Shaun five bucks."

Robin only gaped at Desmond incredulously, " _That's_ all you have to say?! Not: 'Oh, no, a language barrier!?' or 'Oh my god, how are we going to communicate with this guy that is clearly confused if we don't have a way to speak with him?!'?"

Desmond pursed his lips at the teen, crossed his arms, and pointed at the young kid, "I am not really enjoying your tone right now, young man."

The dark haired teen yelled out in exasperation with a shake of his head, then looked at Kaldur, "Kal! Desmond's bothering me!"

Kaldur only quirked an eyebrow at that but turned to Desmond, "I know a small bit of Italian. I decided to learn a few key phrases in the most spoken languages on land for if we were ever in need of that knowledge."

He had done so because Kaldur honestly believed his teammates would one day land themselves in a position where they would be in need of knowledge of a foreign language. It was sad, really, that he thought this of his friends, but he knew Wally and Robin well enough that he was sure they would always be the same brand of troublemakers they had been since children.

"Oh, there's no need for that, Kaldur." Desmond smiled softly as he waved his right hand, "I know Italian."

With that, Desmond made his way over to Ezio with a warm smile on his face. " _Ezio, mi chiamo Desmond. Parle piano, per favore. Non parlo molto bene italiano."_

Ezio looked at Desmond with wide eyes, then at Kaldur and Robin, but slowly began to lose the tenseness in his shoulders. Robin scoffed slightly at how simple the phrases in Italian had been- _he_ could have said that- but watched with slight fascination as Ezio began to tell his tale, albeit using a slower pace and much clearer pronunciation of his words. And Desmond nodded with his eyebrows furrowed, giving his own small bits to the conversation whenever he deemed so.

By the end of the encounter, Robin was seated on the floor and Kaldur stood beside him with his arms crossed. Much to their surprise, Ezio smiled broadly and hugged Desmond broadly, then both men began to walk towards the two teenagers. This was when Robin was allowed to see Ezio in a much clearer light. Well, he still couldn't see the guy too clearly because of the hood that shadowed his face, but at least he was able to see a strong jaw with a black beard and a scar running over the guy's lips. Much like Desmond's own scar.

"Okay, guys, simple meeting time. Robin, Kaldur, this is my ancestor, Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Ezio, _questi sono_ Robin _e_ Kaldur. _Amici._ " Desmond told them and Ezio smiled broadly at them.

Both teenagers smiled back at him, but Robin sighed and shook his head, "Getting out of Arkham is going to be much harder with this guy. Just why is he wearing such heavy clothes?"

Desmond whistled sharply as he scratched at his head, but shook his head, "Eh, it's too much to explain right now. Let's come up with a way to get out of here."

"While you and Ezio were getting acquainted over there, that's just what Kal and I did. Right, Fish Sticks?" Robin smiled up at the older teen as he jumped up from the floor to stand proudly in front of the three.

Kaldur only nodded sagely, then spoke to the two men, "You are not going to like it, Desmond. But it is the only plan we could come up with that would ensure we would all get out of Arkham."

"Right..." Desmond slowly dragged out, then looked at Robin. "Just what did you kids come up with?"

"All you have to do is stay here and make sure you don't get caught. Can you do that?" Robin asked, smiling broadly at Desmond.

This annoyed Desmond to no end but he just crossed his arms, "Of course I can. I'm not some idiot."

As the three spoke, Ezio just stood behind Desmond with curiosity shining in his face, not feeling endangered at all by being in the presence of the three odd males. He only listened to the odd words he did not understand with a soft smile on his face, wondering if Leonardo would be able to survive without him around.

"Good. Just stay out of sight, Desmond. I mean it. The people here aren't friendly. Or good for your mental health." Robin warned, then turned to Kaldur. "Come on, Kal. We've got some guards to fool."

* * *

"We are nearing the disturbance." M'gan announced after fourteen minutes of flying had passed.

Wally had taken that time to ask Shay trivial questions: 'What's your favorite color?', 'How old are you?', and 'Which is better, a sword or a dagger?' were some of the most annoying and stupid questions he had asked. Artemis had shut him up with a sharp threat of making him regret asking so many questions, and then the whole ship had fallen into a comfortable silence, only to be broken by M'gann.

"Do we know what we're facing, M'gann?" Artemis asked with a turn to the green skinned girl, who nodded.

"Apparently, two meta humans tried to rob the bank. But they seem to be new at this because they didn't get too far into the robbery before the bank locked down and froze any way to get to the money. Now they're trying to get away." M'gann informed them. "The local authorities tried to stop them, but couldn't because they are too strong. But they _were_ able to cut them off from the rest of the town and keep them contained."

Wally smiled and punched his left hand, "We got this, M'gann! This is kids' stuff!"

But Shay found himself warning, "Don't get cocky, kid. More often than not, overconfidence leads to grave to mistakes."

All the kids looked at him for a moment, then Zatanna said, "You know, it's kind of hard to not trust a guy that keeps on voicing his concerns for us."

"Just stick to the mission, Zatanna." Conner grouched, and looked to M'gann. "We ready?"

"Yes. I will stay with Shay in the ship." M'gann told them, then waved her hands to open a hole at the bottom of the ship, "Good luck, guys."

Wally saluted at her with a smile and Artemis rolled her eyes as she pushed him out of the ship and followed suit. Zatanna waved almost shyly at Shay before jumping out of the ship, but Conner completely ignored him as he too jumped. Once thy were safely on the floor, M'gann piloted the ship away from the fighting ground and landed it on a rooftop.

"What do we do now?" Shay asked, getting up from his chair to stretch.

"Now I would like for you to give me permission to enter your mind." M'gann told him, getting up from his chair.

Shay quirked an eyebrow, "The same as you did to Desmond?"

The green skinned girl nodded and explained, "Desmond was rather simple to understand, even with all the twists and turns his life has given him. The only reason Robin doesn't want us to trust you is because you are call yourselves assassins. And you are killers and murderers."

"Gee, it's nice to know you think so highly of me." Shay muttered sarcastically, but M'gann didn't react.

"But in my time on Earth, I have come to understand that life isn't as black and white as I once believed it was. There are shades of gray all around and sometimes we have to come to terms with the things we enjoy the least to fully understand any given situation."

Shay was impressed by the maturity in the girls words, but nodded. He understood the concept rather well.

"Just what does this mind reading entail?" He asked, crossing his arms as he followed the girl's movements.

She looked out the window of the ship to see her friends fighting a duo of villains, a red haired girl with dark skin that somehow managed to disappear much like Robin, and a male with black hair that could fly. She knew her four friends were fine, they were more than good enough to take down the rookie villains, but she always worried for their well being.

"Nothing too daunting." She said as she turned to Shay. "You'll feel a new presence in your mind; I can't really explain it, but you'll know when you feel it;" She interrupted herself before Shay could even ask, "And you will find the memories I'm looking into pushed into the front of your mind. I will see the least painful memories of yours, just so I can really make sure you are the man you are saying you are."

This information made Shay sigh, but he asked, "Would this finally show you I can be trusted?"

The girl nodded. "But I promise I'll steer clear of the really hurtful ones. I don't want to cause you any pain. I just want to know understand you further."

The Irishman thought on her words for a moment, then sat down and nodded for her to come closer. "Come on, then."

M'gann nodded and walked towards her, then her eyes began to glow green once more. Just as she had said, Shay felt a strange presence in his mind, but managed to calm down after a while because he remembered it was just the girl.

And thus began the small session of M'gann getting to know Shay more.

 **Please review.**


	7. Chapter 7

The first thing M'gann pulled to the forefront of Shay's mind was one of the few fond memories he had with his father. He must have been about eight years old at the time and his father had actually taken him out on the sea with his whole crew and had taught him a whole lot about the sea life. That was when Shay had taken the one phrase he would repeat most in his life.

His father had stood at the helm of the ship with a broad smile, right hand on the ship's wheel with his left on Shay's head. The beautiful day that had once been perfect for sailing had become darker and the waves started to become much more violent. Shay, of course, had been afraid at first, and his father had caught up on that fear in almost no time.

"Shay, are you alright?" His father had asked with his thick Irish accent, smiling down at him even as the sounds of the crew yelling at one another were heard all around them.

The young boy shivered slightly in the cold and held tightly to his father's coat, but nodded with a straight face. He didn't answer with his voice, though, because he knew that his shivering would be heard too clearly.

His father smiled down at the boy, his heart swelling at how brave his son was trying to be, then looked at his first mate and nodded for the man to take care of the wheel. As soon as he had, he led the boy over to the side of the ship and clasped a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Tell me, Shay, what do you see out there?" The man asked as he got down on one knee, holding onto his son.

The boy looked from his father out to the sea, scrunching his eyes to try and see the hidden meaning his father was trying to make him find. But after a few seconds, the child relented, "I see the sea, father."

With a chuckle, his father hugged Shay, then shook his head, "You know what I see, son?" He asked, receiving a shaken head from Shay. "I see endless possibilities. Limitless opportunities and a lot of luck to make."

Young Shay had cocked his head to the side at the odd words, and asked, "Luck to make? How does that work father?"

Once more his father chuckled and now ruffled his son's slightly long hair. "It just does, my son. I don't wish for the best to happen, but I _make_ it happen." As he saw his son's confused eyes, the man stood up and patted the boy's head, "You may not understand now, Shay, but you will when you're older."

Shay had felt his heart stir in a way it had not in a long time, but that memory was soon replaced by another and much more hurtful one. His father's funeral. He had felt a crushing sense of loneliness as his father's first mate and a few more of his loyal crew members gave him their condolences for the man that had been taken much too soon. He had been older and wiser, but still he had felt _so alone_. And once more Shay's heart stirred, but this time it wasn't in a pleasant manner.

Luckily for him, M'gann merely skimmed over that one memory and a few more of him getting into fights in the streets to try and prove he was the man his father had thought he would be, but soon enough Shay was on the memory of when Liam first found him after a long period of neither having seen each other.

It had been after Shay had gotten into yet another tavern brawl and had been thrown out by the patrons that had grown annoyed with his drunken antics. As he lay on the floor, bruised and slightly bloodied, two boots appeared in front of him. He had groaned deep in the back of his throat and cursed whoever it was that wanted to annoy him now, but bit back any kind of insults when he heard a click of tongue coming from the person above him, and the heel of both boots rise as the man crouched down in front of him.

"Tell me, Shay, do you like feeling hungover?" The person in front of him asked with mirth in his voice.

To Shay's clouded mind, the voice sounded awfully familiar. So familiar, in fact, that the image of his once best friend Liam popped into his mind, but he shook the thought away because he knew that Liam was as good as gone. Liam had disappeared after the murder of that shipping merchant and of his own father and it hurt that his friend have left him without so much as a goodbye, but he knew that there was no way he would be seeing him again.

"Oy, Shay, didn't you hear me?"

Shay grunted in surprise when two hands raised his hand up, only to have one slap him lightly on the cheek.

"Are alive to the world, Shay, or plain old dead drunk?"

The voice had an Irish lilt, Shay noted, but still shook his head. He just wanted to be alone and miserable. "G' 'way..." He slurred, trying to move his head to get away from the prying hands.

But they only held on tight and Shay heard a sigh come from the man above him. "Well, there's not much more I can do."

There were noises of shifting that Shay didn't pay too much attention to, then suddenly he found his sense of balance being shot as he was rapidly hoisted upwards. A strong arm wrapped around his waist while the person that was trying to help him threw Shay's left arm over his own shoulders. Shay was stunned by this, but was much too drunk to actually question what was going on.

He could hazily remember having walked somewhere and having been laid down on some type of comfortable material, but even the reconstructed memory M'gann was using couldn't seem to explain to either of them just what transpired between the time Shay had been picked up from the floor to the moment in which he had awoken, but Shay was much too entranced by seeing his own life before him in a manner he could have barely remembered.

Still, he remembered clearly how excited and elated he had been when he found Liam sitting in front of him, smiling down at him with a tray of food and a mug of ale by his bedside, having predicted the terrible hangover his younger friend would have suffered.

"Liam!" Shay had yelled out as soon as he had regained his bearings from he past night's drunken state, throwing himself at his friend to wrap his arms around the older's shoulders.

Liam had chuckled at his friend's enthusiasm and reciprocated the hug without much hesitation and Shay could feel himself grow as happy as he had been in that specific memory.

Without much warning, M'gann's presence in his mind was gone and the memory was pushed far into the back of his mind once more. Shay felt hollow once more, alone, now that he didn't have M'gann looking into him or the warmth of those nice memories filling him up.

"I... Am sorry."

Shay was puzzled with the girl's sudden change in demeanor, she now stood back with her shoulders sagging and her head down, and stood up from the chair, "Did I do something wrong, M'gann?" He asked, only to have her shake her head.

"I did not mean to pry into such... Special memories, Shay. But it was as if your mind was screaming at me to remind you of those moments." Now she looked up, and Shay was surprised to find that the girl had tears in her eyes. "I didn't mean to pry so deeply."

It took him a moment to notice, but Shay himself had wetness running down his cheeks. He raised his right hand to his face to gingerly grope at the odd sensation, then found that he had actually been crying. Because of those memories? He had not been prepared for that. But, in truth, there was not much he could have actually prepared for when it came to such a new thing.

"No, M'gann. Don't apologize for that." Shay told her with a soft smile as he wiped at the tears. "You asked for permission and I gave it. You did nothing wrong."

Even with Shay trying to assure her that everything was fine, the girl was clearly perturbed by what she had seen. Apparently, she had not expected such clear emotions to have been felt by someone as closed off and private as Shay. They had hit her without much warning and she was affected by them.

Shay had wanted to say something else, _anything_ else to try and comfort her, but before he could, she looked outside of the ship and towards where her teammates had been fighting.

"They're finished. And they're coming this way." M'gann informed Shay, who nodded and sat down where he had been seated for the 'mind reading session'. "... If you wouldn't mind, we could continue later. You know, if you're still up for me finding out about your life."

For a moment, Shay wanted to tell the girl he didn't want to continue resurfacing old memories long suppressed. But he knew that this would get him a step closer to the kid's trusting him. And if he wanted to keep them safe from the trouble Desmond would undoubtedly bring, he would need for them to trust him completely.

"Aye, M'gann."

Inside of his own body, he felt a type of warmth he had not allowed himself to feel in a long time. The same warmth he had felt when he was on the ship with his father. The same type he had experienced when Liam had reappeared in his life after years of absence. The same warmth he had not allowed himself in so long because he was a monster that hadn't deserved it.

Shay closed his eyes and breathed out, trying to calm himself as a wave of unease washed over him. His breathing quickened and his heart began to thump in an almost painful manner, but he tried his best to calm himself down. Those memories were just that, mere remembrance of a past that had already come and gone and left Shay with a bitter taste in his mouth.

"And we gave those guys a 'one-two-hit-'em'!" Wally laughed loudly as he jumped into the ship, Zatanna behind him with a soft smile on her face. "And did you see how Zee trapped that girl with _trash cans_ and _rope_?!" He asked as he wore the smile Shay had gotten to expect on his face.

"It wasn't that great, Wally." Zatanna mumbled, then looked at Artemis. "I mean, did you see how Artemis got her in the right place for me to get her?"

Artemis smiled broadly at the praise, all the while Conner smiled softly at his friends. One by one they all sat down where they had once been seated and Shay found himself wondering just why they had become so quiet all of a sudden.

"Where to now?" He asked after a moment in which no one spoke.

He did notice, though, that Conner had looked at M'gann with worry. But the green skinned girl only smiled bravely at the teen and looked at Shay.

"Back to the Cave. I'm sure our friends are wondering just where we went off to."

Shay nodded and settled in his chair once more, making himself comfortable for the ride as he tried to push the feelings those two old memories had brought to his conscious being.

* * *

When they arrived back at the cave, Robin and Kaldur were waiting in the hangar for them. Robin had a small smirk on his face while Kaldur stood with a passive face that betrayed no emotions.

"Would you mind telling us just where you disappeared to?" Robin asked in a voice that spoke of annoyance but held a bit of mirth inside.

Wally ran to stand beside his best friend and wrapped an arm around him, "Oh, we just went on a small impromptu mission. Nothing too big." Wally smiled at Robin, as if hoping to egg the younger on.

And normally, Robin would have been annoyed that his friends had gone off on some adventure and left him all alone in the mountain with Kaldur and Desmond, but Robin only smiled back at his friend, and not frowned like Wally had expected.

"Really?" Robin asked, then looked at Kaldur. "Look at that, Kal, we weren't the only ones to get something done today."

Kaldur smiled at the young hero and nodded, then looked at the rest of his teammates as they came down from the ship. Artemis was laughing about something or another with Zatanna while Shay smiled at what had been said, even though both M'gann and Conner looked much more serious and sober than their teammates. This caused Kaldur to wonder just what had happened with them, but didn't question it too much. He would ask about it later, after they had met their newest guest.

"What do you mean 'something done'?" Wally asked his friend, even though Robin was busy ignoring him with a smirk in place. "Did you guys go on a mission or something?"

Kaldur ignored him as well and instead opted to speak to the other members of the Team, "While you were off on your joy ride-" He began, only for all of them to suddenly hear a loud crash come from the mountain's main room.

Without a doubt, Wally, Artemis, and Zatanna ran towards the noise, even though Kaldur only sighed with a shake of his head and Robin smiled broadly.

"Shouldn't we go investigate that noise?" Shay asked after a beat in which none of the other kids moved.

"Yeah. I think you'll be happy to meet the new person, Shay, he's like you." Robin informed him as he began to move, the rest of his team following along.

Shay hesitated to follow them for a moment, but still walked behind them, "Like me? What does that mean?"

There was a sudden yelp and Robin took off running towards the room, but Kaldur, M'gann, and Conner all walked calmly towards their destination. The dark skinned teen, though, was nice enough to answer Shay's question.

"A time traveler." The boy stated simply, then turned to Shay with intense gray eyes. "And an assassin."

For a moment, Shay felt his body freeze, then remembered that neither Kaldur nor Robin knew that he wasn't an actual Assassin, but none of the kids knew just what it meant to be an Assassin or a Templar. He would have to tell them the next time he got them all alone without Desmond or this new assassin getting in the way. But the fraction of a second Shay had his body tense soon ended when he saw just why the odd noises had come from this room.

Apparently, this new Assassin was much more lighthearted than those Shay had met before, if Shay was deducing correctly from the wolfish grin on his face as he grappled around the floor with Desmond, who seemed more confused than entertained.

 **Okay, so, there isn't too much information on Shay and his life as a child or really anything about those younger years until about 1752, which is the year the game starts. So I made this history up for him out of the limited information I was able to find. Please don't judge it too harshly because I really tried to keep it as in character and plausible as possible. Still, this is the longest chapter I have written for this story, and I'm proud. Hope you guys liked it. Please review.**


	8. Chapter 8

Wally looked in confusion at the two men wrestling on the floor, then turned to Robin, "Is this one of those guys Desmond was going on about?"

His best friend nodded with a slight smirk, "While you guys went out on your little joy ride, Kal and I actually stayed back here and helped Desmond find one of his time travelers."

Kaldur nodded at the teen's words, then looked over at his teammates.

"I have an announcement to make."

All of the Team then turned to Kaldur, all wondering what their leader would be telling them. Even Shay turned his attention on the Atlantean and shoved the two assassins still rolling around on the floor to the back of his mind.

"As you all know, Desmond came here on a specific mission: to retrieve wayward people from his world's past before the changes to their times were too drastic." Kaldur began, glad to see that all his friends were paying attention to him. "While you were busy with Shay, Robin and I accompanied Desmond in searching for one of these travelers." Now the Atlantean took one step back and motioned to the two wrestling assassins, "May I present to you Ezio Auditore da Firenze."

At hearing his name, Ezio stopped grappling with Desmond and stood with a smile, immediately going to stand beside Kaldur and smiled broadly at all the teenagers.

"We have a bit of a translation problem, Megs." Robin said, then nodded at Desmond, "Desmond over there knows Italian and is able to to communicate easily enough with Ezio, but for us that don't know the language..." He drifted off, hoping that M'gann understood what he was trying to say without any words.

It took Robin and Kaldur staring at the Martian a few minutes for her to understand what Robin insinuated.

"Oh, hello, Megan!" She smacked her forehead lightly, then smiled at them, "Of course I can set up a link between all of us. Just so Ezio can communicate, right?"

"Yeah, exactly that, M'gann." Robin told her with a smile, then waited in silence until he felt M'gann's mental presence in his mind once more.

The whole team felt it as well and were used to it, but Desmond, Ezio, and Shay were all caught a bit off guard by the odd sensation. Both Shay and Desmond had once felt the Martian's presence in their minds before, but were still a bit confused and surprised by the novelty to not be caught unaware by it all. And Ezio's eyes widened at the sudden intrusion and immediately began to question it.

"What was that?" He asked, looking at all the teens in confusion. "What did you do to my mind?"

Desmond smiled broadly at his words, though, because he was gladdened to see his ancestor speaking in English. "Ezio, you're talking in English!" He cried.

This made Ezio cock his head to the side in slight confusion, "No, Desmond. You are speaking in Italian."

His descendant quirked an eyebrow at this, but M'gann stepped forward with a small wave, "Actually, wrong on both accounts. Desmond, you're speaking in English and Ezio in Italian. I'm just translating for you both."

The girl's words were enough to confuse both men, but Shay was actually impressed by the girl's skills. Was there nothing she couldn't do when it came to the mind? Until now she had proved to be able to delve into memories, allow people to communicate with one another, and finally she is able to translate words from another language into English and vice-versa. What other things could the green girl do?

"My God!" Gasped the Italian man, but still smiled broadly, "That is amazing! Leonardo would be amazed to figure out how you are doing this!"

M'gann smiled slightly timidly at the praise given to her by the loud man, but stayed silent as he began to speak to Desmond, "My friend, is this not amazing? I speak my own language, but you are still able to understand me? This is about as breath taking as the dozens of contraptions you showed me on the way into this strange place!"

Ezio was... Loud, Shay decided after the man had spoken. Which was slightly odd to find in an Assassin.

"Well, now that we can finally understand one another," Robin cleared his throat to make both excited Assassins turn to him and listen, "I believe proper introductions are in order."

"Yes." Ezio nodded in agreement, then turned to all the people that had walked into the room and bowed with a flourish. "My name is Ezio Auditore da Firenze. It is a pleasure to meet you all."

M'gann and Zatanna were kind of caught of guard by the propriety the man spoke with, even though Artemis rolled her eyes and the rest of the boys just stared at him. Still, Kaldur nodded at Ezio and bowed himself, "I am Kaldur'Ahm of Atlantis and these are my teammates:" He began, taking one step to the side to motion at his friends, "Artemis, Wally, Conner, M'gann, Zatanna, and I believe you already know Robin."

Ezio nodded as the young boy smiled at him, then Kaldur finished up, "We have one more teammate, Raquel, but she is off world on a mission with her mentor at the moment."

Silence fell after Kaldur had finished speaking, but Ezio broke it with his curiosity, "And who is the last man?"

Shay had been busy thinking up of ways to be able to separate the kids from the two Assassins so he would be able to explain the difference between them and Templars and hopefully get them to listen to reason. It was because he was so deep in thought that he was caught slightly off guard when Ezio pointed at him, but he was able to recover.

"Shay Cormac, Ezio." He answered, lightly raising the corners of his lips in a gentle smile.

The Italian man's seemingly never ending reserve of smiles depleted for a moment as he looked at Shay- and it wasn't just a look, the man was _analyzing_ Shay- and Shay began to wonder if the man would be able to figure out that he was not an Assassin. But soon enough Ezio's smile returned and he was turning to Desmond.

"So, Desmond, will you be kind enough to explain to me just what I am doing in a world that is not my own?"

The younger man looked at Ezio, then nodded and turned to the kids. "I know you rooted through my memories, but I can explain everything to you now. There aren't any other ancestors in peril at the moment and I think it would be best we use this time for me to explain my actions and those of the Order."

All the members of the Team looked at each other for a moment, then Kaldur nodded. "Follow me."

With these words, the Atlantean teen led the group of his teammates and three visitors into what they called the family room, which was where they had couches, seats, and even a television and a game station. This was where the Team usually spent their time relaxing with TV shows or video games. And it also served as a rather comfortable place to sleep from what Wally told them.

Once there, the teenagers fanned out and sat down where they wanted and felt more comfortable, and Zatanna and Wally grabbed Shay and led him towards the smallest couch there- one that was usually meant for only three people- and sat him down there. After he was comfortably seated and they had made sure that his bandages didn't need to be changed yet, the two sat on either of his side.

Kaldur led Desmond and Ezio to sit down on the much bigger couch, and those two men found themselves seated in the very middle between the Atlantean, the bird, and the blonde girl.

Conner and M'gann both took the recliner that was left, with M'gann on the arm of the seat. This way, they were all facing one another even if they did have a coffee table in the middle and a television a bit further from that.

Once they were all settled and comfortable, Wally motioned to Desmond.

"Okay, Desmond, we're listening."

The man nodded then began his tale.

"Well, I think the first thing I should explain is just how we wound up in your world." Desmond breathed out, his eyebrows scrunched up in thought. "Well, actually, no, I think I should tell you about the First Civilization and I guess that would begin to explain how ended up here..." He muttered to himself and Wally couldn't help but smile at his words, "Or maybe I shouldn't tell you about that and just explain what Assassins are and why we fight against the Templars..."

Ezio's eyebrows rose up at how nonchalant Desmond spoke about their secret order, but remained quiet. He had understood from Desmond that these children already knew that they were Assassins but he would have to explain just a bit further to gain their trust. Truth be told, the elder Assassin was very much confused with everything that was going on, but he enjoyed to see his supposed descendant flustered and confused. It was completely worth his confusion.

The young man continued going on about where would be best to begin his tale until Shay sighed, shook his head, and spoke up.

"Maybe, Desmond, the best thing to start off with is the beginning."

Desmond stared at Shay for a moment, then shrugged and nodded. "Okay, well, first of all, in our world there was a civilization that came before human beings. They were called the First Civilization and they were the ones to create humanity." He began his tale, looking from one teen to another as he spoke. "This Civilization created special types of almost unexplainable devices with tremendous power."

"Just how tremendous?" Robin interrupted, eyebrow quirked.

Desmond looked at the boy with solemnity on his face, "Powerful enough to control other humans. Even to amass an army."

The boy's face fell slightly at how dangerous those artifacts could be, but Desmond continued with the explanation of how they had gotten here.

"For some reason I still don't understand and highly doubt I ever will, the smarter persons around me- whom were not able to accompany me on this trip- believe that it was one or maybe two of these devices that brought Shay and Ezio here to your world."

Kaldur now spoke up, hand on his chin in thought, "One of these Pieces of Eden?"

Desmond nodded, "I know it may sound like I belong in some type of asylum, but I'm telling the truth. Maybe the history of your world is nothing like my own, but I can assure you that these Pieces of Eden are very real, very dangerous, and more likely than not in the hands of some mad man."

All of the teenagers remained quiet for a moment as they looked at one another, and after a minute Shay began to wonder if they were communicating mentally once more, but his question was answered when Kaldur spoke up yet again.

"You story does sound like the ravings of someone that is mentally unstable, Desmond. But we have heard more insane theories of our own world and have in contact with actual lunatics. We are going to believe you on this." Kaldur announced, apparently speaking for all the teens.

This made Desmond smile and he seemed as if he were going to continued explaining about Those Who Came Before, but Wally speaking up stopped him.

"Okay, so now we kind of have an idea of how you all got here. But just what are Templars? And why is being an assassin in your world so different from one in ours?" The red head asked and Ezio jumped at the chance to speak up.

"I can answer this question, Desmond." The Italian man told his descendant with a smile, then he turned to Wally, "I believe the difference between the Templars and the Assassins is a rather simple and understandable one." He spoke with an air of intelligence, then finished with a huge smile, "We are good, they are bad."

For a moment, everyone in the room was stunned into silence while Ezio snickered to himself. Once the shock had worn off, Desmond shook his head and wondered if his ancestor really was all that silly, even though Shay didn't find any humor in the situation. So he spoke up to answer the question.

"The greatest difference between the Assassins and the Templars is their way of acquiring peace for all of humanity." He said, looking at Wally, who had asked the question. "Both factions search for peace, but while the Assassins look for it through the freedom of people, the Templars find that controlling humanity is the only way to fully gain it."

"That is _not_ the only difference between us and _them_ , Shay." Ezio spit out after the Irishman had finished speaking while Desmond nodded beside him. "They are ruthless, cold, they do not care for who they hurt-"

"There are rotten apples in every basket, Ezio." The younger man interrupted with a shake of his head, then turned to the teens once more. "The history behind both factions is rich and turbulent at best but when one gets down to the very core, they're more alike than they are different."

Desmond and Ezio were both taken aback by Shay's words but the Irishman himself was proud to have finally gotten a chance to speak up for the Templar side.

"So..." Wally broke the silence they had fallen into, looking from Shay to Ezio and Desmond. "One would let humans run free..." He summarized, only to have Robin finish for him. "And the other would control us like slaves..."

"Yeah. Something like that." Desmond breathed out for a moment, eyeing Shay for a moment before going back to the kids. "It's all very hard to explain and we're not even supposed to speak about things like these to people that don't belong to the Order, but-"

"You need our help to get to those people you came here to get." Artemis finished for the man, arms crossed as she leaned back into her seat. "It's a good thing you're at least smart enough to figure that out on yourself, Desmond."

Desmond frowned at the indirect insult, but still nodded and looked at Kaldur once more. "Anything else?"

The Atlantean sat up as he tried to choose one of the dozen questions he had in his head at the moment, but Robin voiced his own before Kaldur could peg one. "You are all killers, correct? I mean, you're all Assassins so you've all killed, right?"

The three men nodded but kept their silence.

Then Kaldur spoke up, "Do you know how many more people from your world will come here? And who they are?"

Desmond seemed to process the question for a second, then answered it, "I have _no_ idea how many and only kind of know three of the men that are supposed to be coming here. Actually, now that I think about it..." He muttered, then looked at Shay. "I have _no_ idea why Shay is here..."

Shay quirked an eyebrow at this but didn't say anything. Instead, he allowed for the rest to continue speaking.

But before Desmond could explain himself and begin on the long journey that was explaining the Animus, his cell phone beeped and alerted him of a new presence.

 **Please review.**


	9. Chapter 9

"Where is this new person?" Robin asked as he stood up from the couch, turning to Desmond as the man stood up.

Desmond looked down at his phone and read over the map that Rebecca had programmed to some machinery in their own world that he couldn't even begin to fathom so he would be alerted whenever someone appeared and where.

After reading over the map, Desmond looked at the teens. "A place called Central City."

Wally immediately perked up at hearing his uncle's home city and ran up to the man with a broad smile, "Ooh, you're lucky! I can be your guide now!"

The man looked at Wally with a cocked eyebrow, but didn't protest at all. Instead he only turned to Kaldur and asked, "You're going to make more of the team come with, right?"

The Atlantean nodded sagely but smiled softly at him, "I cannot allow you and Wally to go alone. I do not think I would be able to live with myself if anything were to happen to either of you when you are on your search." He told the man honestly, then nodded at Robin, "Robin, you and Zatanna are to go with them as well. I shall stay in the Mountain with Ezio, Shay and the rest of the Team."

Shay quirked an eyebrow at Kaldur's decision because he found it slightly odd, but didn't question it. The teen was the leader of the Team and his decisions must have had reaason behind them and so shouldn't have been questioned. The Irishman didn't really want to stay in the same place as the Assassin, but he wouldn't mind it as long as he knew the kids were nearby.

"Are you sure, Kaldur?" Robin, though, did question the other teenager. "We might need M'gann if this is yet another foreigner."

"Nonsense." Desmond shook his head. "The only non-English speaking guy left is Altaïr, and I know enough Arabic to survive. The other likely candidate is from Revolutionary times and therefore you can assume he does speak English. We don't really have too much to worry about any of them anymore, actually."

Robin looked at Desmond for a minute, as if trying to search inside his soul for the whole truth, then shrugged and nodded at Wally. "Well, if you insist that you know what you're doing, I'm not about to let Wally vibrate a hole into the ground because we took too long discussing something."

Now Desmond glanced over to where Wally was standing and found the boy literally vibrating from excitement, which surprised the Assassin because he had literally never seen anything like that before in his life. Still, he didn't question it too much because this odd bunch of kids seemed to be both odd and competent. Besides, he was still kind of caught up with the fact that one girl was green and no one questioned it.

"Come on, then!" Wally jumped with a wide grin, immediately running over to the Zeta Station. "Desmond, I tell you, you're gonna love Central! Heck, maybe we'll be able to pick my uncle up!"

Robin chuckled at his friend's enthusiasm and followed after, albeit at a much slower pace. Zatanna looked at Kaldur with wide eyes for a moment, but smiled when he nodded at her. She ran after the two friends with a smirk on her lips, "Calm down, Speedy González." She remarked, receiving a feigned hurt gasp from Wally.

"Why Zatanna! I never! Anyway, I think you'd like my uncle." Wally remarked as he turned to Desmond.

Robin rolled his eyes at Wally's theatrics, but calmed both his friends, "Guys, slow your rolls. We still have to find Desmond's stray and make sure he's not a menace to anyone before we start making any additional plans."

The three continued their small quipping session as Desmond followed after, then, after a few minutes, all four were gone, leaving Shay in the giant room with the restof the teens and Ezio.

~/~

Shay turned to Kaldur then, about to ask the boy something, but the question in his mouth died down as soon as he noticed the worried frown pulling at the boy's face.

Without too much hesitation, Shay made his way over to the teen and whispered, "Are you okay?"

Kaldur seemed a bit taken aback by the question, but nodded and apologized, "I am sorry if I worried you. I was just... Deep in thought."

"In thought?" Shay repeated, cocking an eyebrow at the boy, "Just what were you thinking about, lad?" He asked, actually curious as to what could be bothering the boy.

The Atlantean looked up at Shay for a moment, then sighed and explained himself, "We are a team, as you have already seen. We are a group of extraordinary beings and we make great things happen, but..."

After having said that, Kaldur faltered for a moment. Shay wondered just what could have cut the teen off from continuing in the rhythm he had kept. But he didn't have to goad Kaldur to continue once more.

"As their leader, I am supposed to decide what is best for every single one of us. Along with what would be most beneficial to those we are trying to help." The teen paused for a moment before continuing. "Sometimes it is hard to decide what is the best for everyone when you have to think of every single person involved."

Shay pursed his lips for a moment in thought, then breathed out softly and nodded slowly.

"The burden of being a leader is quite the big one." Shay admitted, moving his hands so they were on his hips, "But I am sure you were given it for a reason, Kaldur. I highly doubt you aren't a capable boy to follow."

The boy took some time to fully digest Shay's words, but once he had, Kaldur nodded and told Shay, "Thank you. I had been having some trouble deciding on what to do, but I know now."

With this, Kaldur smiled at Shay and bid his leave. The Irishman watched the teen leave with fondness tickling at his heart, but soon he felt a presence behind him and he turned around. Ezio was standing behind him, chin in his hand with his head cocked to the side as his eyes traveled up and down Shay's whole body.

A sense of dread filled Shay up at that moment and he began to wonder if Ezio would be able to tell that he wasn't an Assassin.

"Tell me, Shay, from what year are you?" Ezio asked in English, and Shay turned his face to see if M'gann was anywhere nearby.

The Martian sat on the large sofa that faced a type of boxy contraption, nestled beside Conner's large frame. She had been watching whatever was interesting on the contraption, but when she felt Shay turn to her, she smiled comfortingly at him and tapped her temple. The girl was telling him she was still translating for them.

Assured that M'gann and Conner were both nearby if Ezio decided to do anything, Shay answered noncommittally, "1760."

Ezio nodded, and continued, "Desmond had told me he was from the present time, but you were not. Yet he didn't tell me from what time period or what country."

"Well, now you know I come from 1760. Now, tell me, had America already been found when you were taken from your home?" Shay asked his own question, hoping he would make Ezio see he was not some kind of pushover.

The question actually managed to confuse Ezio a bit, and Shay was gladdened to see that the man could at least stop smiling and his face wasn't stuck in that one expression, "America?" He asked, looking at Shay with wonder stirring in his eyes, "What is that? And where is it? I myself have only heard of the new lands in Asia Christopher Columbus discovered."

Shay nodded softly, now understanding from what precise time period the other man came from, but didn't answer afterwards. He didn't want to mingle with any of the Assassins because he didn't want to to accidentally give anything away that would make them think he was the enemy. Which he was, but they didn't need to know.

If only he could tell the kids the whole truth about his own life so they wouldn't allow themselves to be enamored with the righteous ways of the Assassins.

Maybe he could take now that they weren't too busy to at least tell M'gann. He turned away from Ezio, who seemed as if he were about to ask more questions, and made his way over to the couch where M'gann and Conner sat.

The green skinned girl looked him over for one minute then smiled and stood up from the couch, "Hey, Conner, you can watch after Ezio, right? I mean, the G-Gnomes did give you some knowledge of the Italian language?"

Conner looked at her with slight bewilderment, but nodded, "Yeah, they wanted me to know the most used languages in the world, so I also know a bit of Mandarin, French, and Spanish... Italian is one of the languages they paid the least attention to, though..."

"But you can tell him to not do anything stupid, right? And stop him from say... sticking his tongue in a place it doesn't belong?" The girl asked as she made her way to stand beside Shay only to turn to Conner with a small smile.

The clone smirked at her and rolled his eyes, "Yeah, I can. Just hurry back before gets angsty about not being understood by Artemis and Kaldur and starts looking for you."

M'gann nodded and looked at Shay, "Come on."

~/~

Really, Shay wished he could say he wasn't too surprised by the girl seemingly knowing he had something to tell her, but that would be a lie. Maybe he would never be able to get past the small nuances in this future. He knew she was a mind reader, so he should expect for her to know when he needs to talk to her. But it just felt so hard to actually integrate himself and get used to this time.

And he didn't even want to begin thinking about all the technology he had been ignoring ever since he had arrived and the Team had taken him in.

"So, what do you need, Mr. Shay?"

M'gann had led him to what he guessed must have been her room. He didn't feel comfortable to be in such an intimate place.

"M'gann, is this your room?" He asked, looking around the four walls that held different types of plastic like posters. She nodded and Shay tensed, "I don't feel too comfortable in here, M'gann. It is not proper for a man to be in a lady's room."

The girl honestly seemed confused by the explanation, but shook her head and stood up, "If you say so. It was just the most quiet place I could think of. But if you're not comfortable, I guess we can head over to the gym. I'm sure no one else should be using it by now."

"Thank you."

Once more the girl led her down the narrow hallways of the compound they found themselves in, and now Shay found himself inside of a large room with odd types of bulky contraptions all over. This had to be the gym.

"Is this more comfortable?"

Shay nodded and looked at the girl. "I didn't mean to offend you, M'gann, it's just that it's not-" He was about to excuse himself for having been raised in a time when men had no place in the room's of teenage girls unless they were their fathers, but M'gann interrupted him with a small and shy smile.

"Please don't apologize. I kind of forgot for a second that you aren't from this time and so don't have the same values to uphold. It's just so normal for my friends to somehow or another wind up in my room that I just find it normal by now." In her own way, she was apologizing for making him feel uncomfortable. "But, you wanted to tell me something. What would you like?"

Shay looked at her for a moment, really looked at the girl, and found that when the time came that he would have to leave this world to go back to his own, that he would miss this girl. Not only her, but the rest of the teenagers as well. They were all odd, but had somehow managed to make him see they were more than kids in just the day or two he had known them. And he would even miss this peace. When; because it wasn't a question of _if_ , but one of _when_ ; he had to go back, he would be thrust once more into a life of blood spilling for the Templar Order. He would miss all of this.

With a sad smile, he admitted, "I haven't been completely honest with you kids. I am not an Assassin."

"Your memories led me to believe that." M'gann admitted after a second, a soft and reassuring smile playing on her lips. "I saw when you became an Assassin, and a few of your missions beside Liam... But then I saw memories of you going against him and other friends of yours I had seen... And strange men that weren't wearing hoods."

"Aye."

Shay didn't really know how to continue. How was he supposed to say he had murdered his once great friends to make sure he kept the world safe? How could he excuse himself from the monster he had become to keep the rest of humanity ignorant and protected?

"If you can't find the words for it, Shay, I could always enter your mind again. And it would only be the memories you _want_ me to look at." She offered, clearly having sensed the man's desperation.

The Irishman smiled down in gratitude at M'gann's caring words, then agreed to have her delve into her mind once more. Maybe it would be easier for her to see everything he had experienced, rather than him having to explain it.

So she sat him down on the floor and sat down in front of him, her eyes began to glow green, and he was back in his own mind once more.

 **I ask for reviews because I honestly love criticism. I love knowing what people liked from the story and what I should fix up. It's one of those small things that make you proud of having written a story. So when I ask for reviews at the end of a chapter, it always is so I can read the review and get to know what others think of my story. And I gotta tell you, Guest of Eden, your reviews always make my day.**

 **Please review.**


	10. Chapter 10

Not being able to communicate comfortably with someone was rather annoying, Ezio decided after having sat beside Conner for almost a half hour without doing anything.

About five minutes after Shay and M'gann had left in the direction of the bedrooms, Ezio had plopped himself beside Conner with a heavy sigh. The Italian man had tried to fill his time with looking around the main room of the mountain, but got tired after a while because there were no paintings, no portraits, and not even any kind of vase or antique he could get his hands on. The whole place felt awfully cold if you asked him.

But he wasn't about to allow boredom to take him, so he tried to look at whatever had taken Conner's attention. The boxy contraption that was in front of them had a type of screen and seemed to mimic the small puppet theaters he had watched as a child. But there were no puppets and certainly no humans behind the thing to control said-absent puppets. And in place of those humans and puppets, there were white and black dots dancing all along the screen. But nothing happened. Was the boy really enjoying all of this?

"Conner?" He had asked, trying to get the teenage boy's attention.

But the black haired teen had only grunted noncommittally and kept his eyes on the screen in front of them.

Still, Ezio tried to communicate with him at least five more times in the next thirty minutes even though the most he got as an answer from the boy was a broken, "Maybe." in Italian.

Ezio stayed seated beside the big teen for about one more minute after he had decided on one conclusion of the language barrier, but he was restless and bored. So he sprang up from the couch like a spring and grabbed Conner's shirt by the collar and pulled him up.

Conner had been nice enough to allow Ezio to drag him upwards and into the kitchen area of the mountain. He didn't really feel like trying to explain how he was so strong at the moment so he didn't really feel like putting up too much of a struggle against Ezio.

 _"Bambino, I am hungry."_ Ezio grumbled in his rapid way of speaking Italian.

He spoke fast enough that Conner had to strain his own hearing to be able to understand what had been said, and once he understood, his complexion paled by a small bit. He wasn't the type of person that would normally cook. And he still didn't like Ezio at the moment- there was still a bit of suspicion because of his assassin ways- which made him want to cook for the man much less.

 _"What you want me do?"_ Conner responded in a broken Italian, eyebrows drawn in as Ezio dragged him into the kitchen.

 _"Why, food of course!"_ Ezio responded happily, _"I do not understand anything in here but I am sure you do, so I would like for you to make me something to eat."_

Ezio had spoken with a careless happiness about him but Conner felt despair slowly begin to rise in his body. He wasn't a cook. M'gann usually always made the food for him.

 _"Now come on, I will help you! We shall create a feast!"_

Conner really regretted being able to actually understand the Italian the man spoke. If only he hadn't assured M'gann he could deal with the man.

* * *

Artemis had disappeared into her room as soon as the group of four had left through the Zeta Station, having decided that she should get some sleep before yet another visitor arrived. Until now, she had liked Shay because of how careful and caring he was with her team. Desmond was a bit of a wild card, but he was all right in her book. But she still wasn't sure what to think of Ezio because of recent he had arrived.

Still, she had been tired from the initial mission they had gone on and so had decided to take a small nap while the rest of the Team was gone. But, about forty minutes into her nap, her stomach growled angrily at her and reminded her that she was a human, which meant she still had to ingest some type of food to be able to rest better.

So she got up from her bed, tied her hair up in a loose ponytail, adjusted her shirt and pajama pants, and padded out of the room in bare feet. She hadn't planned to be seen by the visitors and her friends were already used to her pajamas, so she didn't care that she walked out in such a manner.

When the blonde archer reached the kitchen, though, her hunger was forgotten for a moment by the fascination she felt at the scene before her.

Was Conner really in the kitchen? Did he even know how to work the oven he was trying to use?

And to add to the humor of the scene was Ezio wearing an apron that read 'Kiss the Cook' with his heavier robes left over the island of the kitchen, which left him in his much lighter undergarments. He had a large bowl in his hands and was placing in on the kitchen counter as he turned to Conner.

 _"Pizza, sí?_ _È il più semplice."_ He said, all the while moving towards the fridge to start grabbing the ingredients he would need.

Artemis smirked at Conner's flustered face- his eyebrows were drawn in annoyance, but his face was almost as red as Wally's hair- then decided that it would be best to leave the 'chefs' to their work and turned around.

Her hunger was ignored as she made her way towards the mission room, where she felt that she would find Kaldur. And once she reached the main mission room, she found Kaldur standing in the very middle of it, facing a rather stern looking Batman, who was talking to him on a screen.

"You are telling me you allowed three strangers to enter Mt. Justice before deciding to tell me about them? Even though you know how possibly dangerous they were?" Batman questioned, eye slits drawn into his 'Bat glare'.

The Atlantean teen nodded mutely, eyes steely as he kept them trained on the Bat. Artemis noted that his body was tense and seemed to be frozen in place, and it bothered her that he actually dared to accept the Bat's scolding all by himself, without anyone to back him up.

It was a good thing she had entered at that very moment to be able to be the reinforcement Kaldur most probably thought he wouldn't need.

"He did all that because we decided as a Team to help the guys out. Their world is in peril. Did you know?" Artemis asked as she crossed her arms and stepped towards the screen, earning Kaldur to turn to her with shock running across his face before he composed himself once more.

"The first to arrive was a man named Shay Cormac that needed immediate medical attention. Which is how he was introduced into the Mountain, we all thought it would be best for Red Tornado to treat him rather than take him to a hospital and just leave him alone. After he had been treated and we began to get to know him, Desmond Miles was transported from his home to stand right in front of us. We were wary of him at first, but calmed down as soon as he explained his situation." Kaldur explained, tone firm but respectful. "And finally we found Ezio Auditore when we went to Arkham Asylum to fetch him. There is a fourth visitor and I set Robin, Kid Flash, and Zatanna to accompany Desmond Miles."

"These men are all Assassins?" The Bat asked, frown grim as he looked down at both teenagers in front of him.

Both the girl and the boy nodded, "But it's not what you think, Batman." Artemis immediately spoke up, already knowing the Bat would use that information against them, "They're not the killers for hire we're used to. It's a rather long story that we still don't have. Actually, Desmond only explained a fraction of how he managed to come into our world."

"But they are not the kind to kill senselessly." Kaldur stated firmly, "M'gann has already gone through the memories of both Shay Cormac and Desmond Miles and we found nothing that would lead us to believe they are dangerous beings and are likely to harm us. They may have killed, Batman, but they do not kill just for fun. Every single life they take has a reason for dying and they never feel any type of happiness when they do so."

"That you know of." Batman growled, "We do _not_ know these people, Kaldur'ahm. We do not know what type of world they come from and just how powerful they could be. Your decision to keep this information from the League until right now was reckless and seems to lack consideration for the kind of danger you may have just placed your team into."

"I am telling you everything I now know, Batman." Kaldur argued, even though he kept his tone obedient. "Believe me when I tell you these men come from a world without powers. They see people like us in _comic books_ , Batman. Most humans in their world could not being to fathom what we are able to do."

Then Artemis shrugged, "Besides, I highly doubt Shay would be able to get past M'gann's mental search. Desmond? Maybe because he's from the future. But Shay comes straight from the Seven Years' War. I find it hard to believe that a man from so far back in time would be able to fool M'gann. Especially seeing how he was the first person to arrive."

Batman stayed silent for a moment, then relented, "The Justice League is stretched thin taking care of some missions around the world at the moment. But as soon as I am able to, I myself will go down to the Mountain to ensure these 'harmless' visitors are who they say they are. Batman out."

~/~

Artemis had stayed standing beside Kaldur for a few seconds after the transmission had ended, feeling a pit start to form in her stomach with worry over what the Bat might do to Shay, Desmond, or Ezio. She didn't think he would readily hurt them just on the sole reason that they hadn't hurt any of the Team, but she was more than aware as to all the interrogation methods a man like him must have known.

"Maybe he'll actually believe us?" She asked, turning to Kaldur with a small smile.

He smiled back at her, even though it was nervous and shaky rather than comforting, "Thank you for coming at the moment you did. It took me almost thirty minutes just to build up the courage to contact the Bat... I don't think I would have been able to finish saying all I needed if you had not arrived."

Artemis punched his arm softly with a wink, "You know I'd always stand behind my oh so great leader."

The dark skinned teen chuckled softly with a shake of his head, then asked, "What is going on out there? I am so accustomed to Robin or Wally running in at any moment to interrupt whatever I am doing that it is odd to not have them do so right now."

Both began to walk out of the room and towards the main hall, all the while Artemis's smile broadened.

"You had to see Conner and Ezio, Kal! You know that Conner is rather awkward, right? Well apparently Ezio isn't a good reader of emotions because last I saw them, he was forcing Conner to actually help him cook."

Kaldur's complexion paled in record time, "You allowed a man from Renaissance Italy and _Conner_ in the kitchen? Alone?"

At least the blonde had the decency to feel slightly embarrassed and turn slightly red, "Maybe I should have thought the situation out a bit more."

"Oh, really?"

"Hey, I don't need your sarcasm, Mr. Leader. Who just saved you from-" Artemis was about to say something rather mean to Kaldur, but a sudden beeping in the mountain made her cut her words off. "Well shit."

Kaldur rolled his eyes for a moment then began to run in the direction of the kitchen. Artemis followed after him and soon enough they were able to see smoke billowing out of the kitchen in all directions, the rapid and shrill beeping of the smoke alarm reverberating all throughout the Mountain.

"What has happened here?" Kaldur asked with wide eyes as he entered the kitchen, where he found Ezio and Conner both coughing rather loudly as the clone threw the oven door open, causing it to fall off one of its' hinges.

 _"Abbiamo cercato di fare la pizza!"_ The Italian man managed to be heard through all the coughing and the loud alarm that kept sounding all the while Conner stuck his hand into the oven without an ovenmit of any kind to grab the pizza they had supposedly made.

Kaldur understood a small bit of what the Italian had said, but Artemis could only understand the word pizza. Still, she could guess rather easily what had been attempted to be made and she smiled, even though she coughed at the smoke all around her.

The clone threw the pizza he had grabbed out of the oven onto the kitchen counter, even though it couldn't really be called a pizza. There were small slivers of the color of yellow that had originally belonged to the cheese they had used, but there was no color but black apart from those slivers. The thing must have been as hard a hockey puck and it was shriveled and burnt to a crisp.

Artemis couldn't help but laugh at the situation. Ezio joined her in almost no time because it was rather humorous indeed. Kaldur and Conner, though, couldn't find just what was so funny with smoke billowing out of the oven and a charred and an inedible pizza.

"Conner, why did you not look for M'gann to help you with the cooking?" Kaldur asked softly, now looking around the kitchen to find it covered in all types of foods. He didn't even want to ask just how the eggs had gotten so high on the wall.

The black haired teen grumbled as he crossed his arms, even though he eyed the oven to make sure it wasn't turned off. Luckily, it was. "She went to speak with Shay about something. I promised I would keep Ezio occupied until she was able to come back and help translate again.

Kaldur's annoyed look softened into a much more controlled one, then he sighed and shook his head, "If you wanted to make food, you could have asked Artemis or myself. We would have helped you."

Conner now turned away so as to not be seen by his friends because his face reddened. He knew he could have looked for them at any moment but... for some reason, he had wanted to make something himself. He couldn't explain why he felt the sudden urge to create edible food, but he sure felt annoyed at having burned the first pizza he ever tried to make.

"Yeah... I know..." He grumbled so low Kaldur almost didn't hear.

Kaldur looked at Conner with softness in his eyes then patted him on the back. "Come on. Let us clean this mess up then we can order pizza for the whole Team."

Conner groaned at having to clean, but looked at Ezio and told him what had to be done in his broken Italian. The man seemed as if he had wanted to put up a fight and _not_ clean, but he thought about how it _was_ technically and his fault and relented. And so the four began to clean up the mess that had been made in the kitchen.

* * *

"Hey, Desmond, who are you hoping for the visitor to be?" Zatanna asked from her spot walking beside the man, all the while Robin and Wally walked about three paces behind them.

They had walked all the way to the Central City Flash Museum because Desmond's phone told them they would find the newest visitor there and they had maintained a companionable silence about them until Zatanna had spoken up.

Desmond glanced down at the girl for a moment then shrugged, "Don't know. I guess Altaïr is actually the only one I don't want to deal with just yet. So Connor would be the best bet, really."

"Altaïr? From when is that guy?" Wally asked, curiosity peaked by the odd name.

The only adult in the group of four sucked in a breath at the question, straining to remember the answer, "Uh... He was born in 11-something and died by 1257. He lived in Masyaf, a city in Syria."

The kids all nodded at the information, then Robin asked, "So you would much rather deal with Connor- whom I'm presuming is the guy from Revolutionary times- than with Altaïr. Why is that?"

By that time the group had reached the front doors of the Flash Museum and they could clearly see how everything was turned off and how the museum was closed. It was a good thing Robin and Wally didn't really care for the schedule it was supposed to keep.

"Okay, here's the plan. Zee, can you get us inside?" Robin asked, which made the girl nod with a smirk.

The words that then came out of her mouth were unlike anything Desmond had ever heard before in his life, then, before he could ask just what she had said, he suddenly found smoke beginning to rise at his feet. Like any normal human being, he began to freak out at the sight, even though the kids didn't seem to care. And before he could really ask what was going on, his whole body disappeared. He couldn't see himself.

But then they materialized inside the museum and he began to almost hyperventilate-but-not-really. He looked all around himself, found that the kids were all looking at him with amusement, then he gulped in air and glared at them.

"You can warn a guy next time." He growled, crossing his arms as he turned to look into the museum.

It was a good thing young Connor was much more curious than what Desmond remembered the older Connor to be. If not, they may have been stuck inside the museum all night trying to find the slipper the Native American that had grown much more tentative of the world after having killed both his father and Charles Lee.

"Connor!" Desmond called as soon as he saw the man in the rather white garments. It was the freshness of the clothes that really let Desmond know they were dealing with a much younger Connor, which was just what Desmond had been hoping for. He really did not want to think of how problematic dealing with the older version of the man would have been. "We're allies. Friends."

The man's hazel eyes widened slightly, but instead of retracting into the shadows like Desmond expected, he instead walked closer and allowed the group to see him completely.

"Who are you? And where am I?" He asked, looking at the oddly dressed strangers with slight hesitation.

"Know what, Desmond?" Zatanna interrupted, smiling at the young man, "I like this guy already. He's much sweeter and much more bashful than Ezio."

Desmond rolled his at the girl then motioned at himself, "My name is Desmond Miles, Connor. And I promise you that we're only here to help."

Luckily for them, Connor trusted Desmond without too much hassle. The problem now, though, would be getting him back to the Mountain because none of them wanted to walk all the way back to the Zeta Station, nor did they want to freak Connor out with Zatanna using a spell. She couldn't really teleport them over such a long distance, though, but maybe she could have gotten them just a tiny bit closer.

"Maybe M'gann should have come..." Wally mumbled, looking at Connor with curiosity shining in his eyes.

Connor had no idea what to think of the strangers other than that they wore odd clothes and the red headed boy looked like he might just be a troublemaker.

 **The reason as to why Ezio's words when speaking to Conner are English is just because Conner understands him. Conner just can't speak Italian properly, which is why he answers in not perfect English. Artemis and Kaldur understand Ezio a lot less, which is why he speaks real Italian then.**

 **Did y'all notice this is my longest chapter in ever? I think it is, even when compared to any of my other stories. I'm very happy with it! I hope you liked it! Please review.**


	11. Chapter 11

M'gann was inside his mind. Shay could feel her. But no memories were coming up. It was just their presence in the middle of nothing.

 _'You are the one in control this time, Shay.'_ He felt her voice rumble in his head, which was odd in its own way. _'I'll only see what you want to show me.'_

He was a bit daunted at having control of his own mind, seeing how he had almost no idea as to what M'gann meant, but he still tried his best. He thought up of the most hurtful moment he could think of, after Lisbon. How he had returned all alone in a ship full of loyal but misunderstanding sailors only to face the rampant ignorance of the whole Order.

M'gann watched quietly as the moment in which Shay jumped from the house's window with manuscript in hand played before her, and continued in her silence as the rest of that memory continued. She didn't say a single thing as Shay hesitated over the cliff's edge, but whimpered slightly when a shot rang out and Shay plunged into the ocean.

 _'I had no idea...'_ Her voice was soft, caring, and Shay felt a small smile graze his lips because of her words. _'Are the Assassins really that vile? That conniving and contriving?'_

 _'I cannot tell you that either Desmond or Ezio are like them, M'gann, but I can assure you that the Assassins from my own time were nothing but greedy and ignorant."_ He stopped himself for a moment, then continued in a whisper, _'They ignored their creed, cast it to the side because they wanted to be able to defeat the Templars. Thousands of innocents were killed by my hand._ That _is why I became a Templar. To stop the Assassins.'_

The fact that he was able to communicate with the girl without ever moving his lips was odd, but he didn't question it too much. He did not really feel like breaking his back trying to understand the oddity that was M'gann's immense power over the mind.

 _'And these Templars, just what are they?'_ M'gann asked, and suddenly the memory Shay had been thinking of was replaced by their bodies.

Shay was dressed in his formal Templar uniform and was relieved to no longer be stuck wearing the rags he had stolen from that French Assassin. M'gann was dressed in the mission clothes he was accustomed to seeing, the white shirt with the blue skirt, and she smiled warmly at Shay.

He was glad that at least one of the kids now knew the truth.

 _'Why am I in these clothes?'_ He asked, peering down at himself curiously as he wondered how he was wearing those clothes.

M'gann smiled softly at his curiosity and explained, _'We are in your mind right now, Shay. It's kind of hard to explain, honestly, but what I can assure you of is that because we are in a mindscape and not a physical landscape, your mind has the power to project you in your most comfortable form.'_

Shay turned the information over in his mind and he found that while he was far from understanding the matters of the mind when it came to M'gann fully, he could at least see what she meant now. He was more comfortable wearing Templar robes than wearing Assassin ones. He wasn't wearing the robes physically, but his mind had dressed him up for comfort.

 _'Now...'_ M'gann muttered softly, hoping to not bother Shay with what she was going to ask. _'May you tell me what Templars are?'_

 _'Ah! Of course! Sorry...'_ He looked down for a moment, slightly embarrassed at having gotten so easily distracted, but regained his composure and began, _'Templars are the order that fight against the Assassins.'_ Shay explained, _'If you'd like... I can show you how that happened.'_

 _'Yes please.'_ M'gann answered almost instantly, then he saw her blush and retract slightly, _'I mean, if that's what you'd like, of course.'_

Shay smiled fondly at the girl and nodded. Then he turned around a bit and began to play the memory of the first day he remembered after having fallen from the cliff's edge at the homestead. The day he met the kind couple that had kind of adopted him as their own. After that, he showed the moment he met George Monroe. That man became both a father figure and mentor to Shay and he felt his heart break a little when he relived the elder's death once more. But it was that very death that had cemented his cause. It was when Monroe died that he gave his full efforts to the Templar cause.

M'gann was clearly amazed by everything she was seeing and how open Shay was when it came to her, but before she could ask Shay just why he felt he had been forced to kill Le Chasseur the shrill ringing of the smoke alarm broke them both out of the trance.

M'gann immediately stood up from the floor and looked up at the alarm in surprise then helped Shay get up from the floor before heading towards the main room they had come from only about an hour ago. Shay was confused as to what the loud noise meant, but followed after the girl without question.

~/~

They both reached the kitchen a few minutes later, only to find that Ezio, Conner, and Artemis were in the kitchen with the oven's door hanging by only one hinge and smoke billowing all about.

"Conner, are you alright?" M'gann immediately inquired, eyes wide at the sight of the piece of machinery she used on a daily basis to perfect her cooking craft.

The clone looked at the Martian with a soft frown but nodded, "Ezio wanted a pizza." He explained almost dumbly, as if he didn't really want to admit what had happened only a few minutes ago.

Artemis went to stand beside Ezio and patted his upper arm with a small smile, "I guess the big lug got hungry but you weren't around to translate for him, Megs."

"He couldn't have gotten hungry so fast... Right?" Shay asked M'gann now, who shook her head.

"The passing of time when inside someone's mind is much slower than in reality." She explained while she ignored the questioning looks sent her way by Artemis and Conner. "What feels like five minutes inside the mindscape could be thirty minutes out here. Actually, I can't tell you with full certainty just how long we were both exploring your memories, Shay."

"About an hour." Conner cut in as he took a step towards them. "Ezio spent the first half hour without annoying me too much... But..."

 _"_ _l'ho convinto a fare la pizza!"_ Ezio interrupted, smiling broadly as he took one step forwards.

"Does he even understand what we're saying?" Artemis asked, "Because I know he can use context clues to kind of figure out what we mean and what not, but I just feel like he's spouting off random Italian at this point."

"Sorry, Ezio." M'gann apologized before her eyes glowed green once more. "You should be able to communicate well with us now."

"Now I can understand you!" He cheered, then slapped Conner's back, "We tried to make a pizza, but Conner here did not tell me how to work the oven. We tried to figure it out, honest, but for some reason the heat didn't make any sense."

"So that's why the pizza burned..." Artemis mumbled, looking at the oven. "Well, even with your fail, we're going to get food."

At that very moment the alarm that had announced how dangerous Ezio and Conner were when in the kitchen ceased. Shay looked up at the ceiling for a moment, wondering just how the alarm worked and was cut off so easily, but Artemis answered his question before he even asked it.

"Kaldur went to cut the alarm off and is going to order some pizza for us. While he does that, _we_ ," She motioned at herself, Conner, and Ezio, "Are to clean up the kitchen disaster they created."

"We could help." M'gann offered, then faltered slightly when all eyes turned to her. "Well, if Shay doesn't mind, he could help. And I know I would not mind helping you clean up."

Conner smiled softly at the green skinned girl but shook his head, "Why don't you go and finish whatever it was you were doing?" He told her, "I know Shay seemed kind of... I don't know... He seemed like he really needed to tell you something. Seemed important." Conner shrugged noncommittally at these words.

M'gann hesitated a small bit, then looked at Shay, "Would you like to finish showing me those things or would you much rather wait?"

Shay looked down at the teen with a soft smile and shrugged, "Whatever you think would be best, lass. I would not mind helping with the clean up." He then looked at Ezio and Conner with mirth shining clear in his eyes. "I am guessing cooking would not really be one of your strengths?"

Conner's cheeks blossomed with pink at that, and he turned away before M'gann could see his embarrassment, but Ezio only smiled at the Irishman, "These contraptions are not what I am used to, Shay. But... Maybe trying to make a pizza without asking for instructions was not the best idea; in retrospect, of course."

The Templar quirked an eyebrow at Italian, wondering just how one man could remain so happy even when he had clearly gotten in trouble, but shook his head and moved so he was seated on the chairs that were placed on the outside of the kitchen, right in front of the window in the wall. Liam and he had been just like that at one point. They would get in trouble with Hope and Achilles but they would only laugh the elder's anger off.

The thought of his old friends and allies dampened Shay's mood and M'gann noticed this. She looked at him with a worried frown, but still hesitated between staying with her friends and Ezio or going to accompany the clearly wounded man.

Luckily for her, Conner seemed to understand her hesitation and shoved her lightly towards him, "Just go, M'gann."

She smiled broadly at him and kissed him on the cheek, then floated towards Shay and sat herself beside him. Once there, she smiled at him then turned to Artemis, "So, Ezio, would you care to tell us just how you made pizza?"

Shay was slightly surprised to find that M'gann clearly had some type of care hidden deep inside of herself for him, but didn't say anything as Ezio went on a long explanation as to just what ingredients they used to make the burnt pizza while Artemis fetched the tools needed to begin the cleanup.

* * *

"We're back!" Wally yelled out as soon as the Zeta Beam had allowed him to come into the Mountain, only to find that no one was where they had last left them. "Uh..." He mumbled for a second, blinking stupidly at the empty space before him.

After him arrived Robin, who was neither frowning nor smiling, only to have him quirk an eyebrow at the vacant scene before him. But he didn't question it as Desmond and appeared through the machine. Lastly came Zatanna, who was too busy paying attention to Connor's story of how he saved the first inhabitants he had invited to the Homestead to notice the absences, and Connor, who was telling said story.

"I swear there were people here when we left." Wally muttered to Robin, who only scoffed and nodded.

"Wally, did you really think they would really just stand around doing nothing while we retrieved Connor?" The thirteen year old asked as he took a few steps into the Mountain. "You very well know that there was no way that was going to happen."

Wally seemed to deflate at his friend's bluntness, but Connor placed a hand on the young boy's shoulder and smiled down at him, "Do not worry, young one. I am sure we will find your friends."

"I am not _young._ " Wally spat, glaring at the Native American halfheartedly. "You look barely nineteen."

Connor shrugged softly then turned to Robin, "Where would we find these friends of yours?"

Robin glanced around the room for a moment, then said, "Knowing that they're the most boring members of the Team, I can safely say they are either in the kitchen, their rooms, or the library."

"Ooh! I smell something delicious!" Wally suddenly gasped with a bright smile, sniffing at the air, "Follow me!"

He took off running without any hesitation and Robin followed with a smirk. Zatanna walked after them in a much slower speed and Connor decided to go after her about ten seconds after the three teens had gone ahead.

Desmond, though, stayed behind for a moment to stare at Connor's retreating form. It was odd, really, to see him so talkative and _young_. He remembered just how scarred and cold the Native American male had ended up after a life full of heartache and trauma. The Templar assassinations he had committed and all the pain he had gone through with all the people he allowed himself to grow close to had left Connor cold and calloused by the time Desmond had finished looking into his memories. So, with how he knew Connor would end up, Desmond wasn't sure if he enjoyed the fresh and doe eyed young adult he now had under his charge.

Still, he didn't allow himself too much time to contemplate on Connor's life because he knew he didn't want to; nor could he afford to; miss any of the new interactions to be had between the teens and the Assassins in the other room. Besides, he was kind of hungry and if Wally's nose was correct, they now had food in this place.

Without too much thought after that, Desmond made his way over in the direction the other three had gone in while hoping there would be enough food for all of them.

~/~

When Desmond reached the kitchen, he found that inside where Artemis, Conner, Ezio, and Kaldur with one pizza box on the counter. Outside, by the kitchen's window to the outside, he found Shay and M'gann speaking softly about something or another. And finally he found Connor, Wally, Zatanna, and Robin with countless pizza boxes splayed all around them, and there was even one in the teenager's hands as they explained what pizza was to the Native American.

That, Desmond decided, was going to get annoying really soon. Differentiating between Connor and Conner was not going to be easy nor fun. But maybe the kid had some type of nickname he could be called while Connor was around... Desmond wasn't really looking forward to having to use Connor's given birth name to address the Mohawk.

"It's cheese, Connor! Just try it!" Wally pushed the cheesy food into the man's hands, smiling broadly the whole time.

"Wally? What are you doing?" M'gann asked, seemingly pulling herself out of her conversation with Shay to stop the redhead from bothering the stranger too much.

The fifteen year old smiled at her, "Megs, I would like you to meet the newest member of the Assassin fan club, Connor Kenway."

Desmond noticed Shay's frame tensing up at the name, but he did not understand why. There was nothing too odd about it, right?

"Connor?" M'gann repeated, all the while Artemis' head popped up through the window into the kitchen.

"Kenway?" Shay asked, his voice much more composed and cold than it should have been when it came to having an ally.

Desmond nodded now and spoke up, "Yeah, he's the closest in era to you too, Shay. If I'm correct, he comes from the year 1777, if not 1778."

Connor glanced over at Shay, who only nodded tensely with a strained frown and knitted brows. To Desmond it looked like he was trying to make a connection between something or another, he just didn't know what Shay could be trying to connect at the moment.

"Wait, that means Revolutionary times!" Artemis gasped out suddenly, then she was out of the kitchen and running over to the dark skinned male. "Can you tell me about the Boston Tea Party? I have this huge essay to write for History class that's due in three days!"

Connor took a step back at the blonde's sudden appearance, clearly shocked by her energy, and turned to Desmond for some type of help. The male from modern times, though, only smiled at him and shook his head. It would be kind of funny to see his ancestor squirm a bit because of how uncomfortable the girls would make him feel.

Even though that was what Desmond wished, though, Kaldur stepped out of the kitchen with a calm look on his face and diverted the attention away from Artemis' outburst and towards what he deemed to be the more important situation at the moment.

"His name is Connor, correct? We already have a Conner." He informed, motioning towards the clone still in the kitchen.

Said clone was in the middle of keeping Ezio from opening the refrigerator. The Italian man was fascinated by quite literally everything in the kitchen, but now that he knew the giant box of metal in the corner was cold, he wanted to figure out how it worked so he could bring his designs back to Leonardo, whatever that meant.

"I believe it will become rather confusing if we continue calling them both by their names." He admitted with a sigh. "To tell you the truth, I do not feel right asking one to choose a name other than their own, but if you all will be staying with us we must not have so much confusion or doubt amongst us."

Connor thought for a moment, then admitted, "You could always call me by my birth name, Ratonhnhaké:ton."

The whole group became silent at the mention of his real name and all the teens looked at him, wide eyed and unblinking. The silence caused the Mohawk to shrink away from them slightly and Desmond felt a tiny bit bad for him. Still, Kaldur was a respectful teen and reacted as kindly as he could.

"I am Atlantean, sir, but even I must admit the pronunciation of your name would give me quite some complications." He admitted, feeling slightly bad for making the stranger feel so bad in the first few minutes they had gotten with him.

"We can keep calling him Connor," Wally offered, even though he was speaking with a piece of pizza in his mouth, "And call Conner Con whenever they're in the same room."

Artemis immediately jumped on the chance to make fun of Wally, though, "Wow, Baywatch. First good idea I've heard from you in the whole time I've known you."

Wally stuck his tongue out at the blonde but didn't say anything else as he went back to eating his pizza slice.

Kaldur rolled his eyes at their theatrics, but turned to Superman's clone and looked at him, "Would you mind that, old friend?"

Conner blinked at him for a moment, then shrugged, "It's only when that guy's in the room and you already call me Superboy on missions." He growled at Ezio and slapped the Italian's hand when he tried to open the fridge once more. "Ezio, out of the kitchen!" Then he mumbled, "Can't he stay away from electrical appliances?"

Ezio walked out of the kitchen dejectedly for a moment, then brightened up when he saw the newest Assassin to join their ranks. Immediately he went towards the Mohawk and began to look him over, analyzing all the oddities he wore.

"What is this?" He asked, picking up the tomahawk that hung from the younger's belt.

With curiosity peaked, Ezio began to turn the weapon over in his hands, amazed by the rudimentary and slightly crude craftsmanship of the weapon. And his intrigue was furthered with the overall bluntness of the thing. It was nothing like any weapon he had come across before.

"Ezio, maybe you shouldn't be playing with weapons you don't understand." Desmond scolded softly as he plucked the tomahawk out of Ezio's hands and returned it to its rightful owner.

The Italian seemed to want to grab at the thing again, but Connor's glare stopped him from it. Instead he turned to Shay and walked towards him.

Once more M'gann and Shay had begun to whisper in voices so low nobody else could hear them, but stopped when Ezio neared them. Shay looked at M'gann for one last time and straightened up.

"I hope you are able to discuss this with your teammates before any madness stirs." Shay told her simply and M'gann nodded, for once not smiling after having spoken with Shay.

Inside the kitchen Con had finished cleaning up what had been left of the pizza mistake and he walked out with his eyes narrowed. He had heard everything Shay and M'gann had discussed, even though he could not understand why they were speaking about such things.

The green skinned teen made her way towards Kaldur and whispered in his ear, "May I bring you aside for a moment. I need to tell you something." She informed him, which made her teammates look at her with curiosity and confusion.

"Of course, M'gann." He nodded, then bowed at Connor. "If you will excuse me."

With that both teens made their way towards the communications hub, all of the other teens looking after them with different questions in their mind.

~/~

"Shay, Connor, Desmond, shall we get to know each other more?" Ezio asked, smiling at all of them. "It only becomes of Assassins to learn from one another."

Shay's face read that he clearly did not like the idea of spending too much time with them, but Desmond immediately perked up at the chance.

"Yeah, let's do that, Ezio. Robin, got a room for all of us?" He asked the young bird, who nodded.

"But don't you want to eat dinner first? It's been a long few hours for all of us." Robin questioned and Desmond chuckled slightly.

"Dinner first." Shay agreed, getting down from his chair and passing by Ezio's side to go into the kitchen and grab a slice of pizza.

Ezio looked after him with pursed lips, then shrugged and went towards the teenagers and grabbed a slice from the many boxes on the table. He could ask Shay why he was such a jumpy man once they were away from the teenagers. It was not a conversation for young ears.

 **So, _Connor_ is Ratonhnhaké:ton and _Con_ is Conner. Conner is Superboy, Connor is the Assassin. **

**Hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Please review.**


	12. Chapter 12

M'gann followed after Kaldur without saying a word, then, once they were safely inside the communications hub, she looked at him with a hint of worry in her eyes.

"Kaldur, I have spent quite some time speaking with Shay and getting to know him better." She began with seriousness in her voice, green eyes swimming with dozens of emotions.

In her time on the planet known as Earth, she had gotten to know various different types of kinds of minds. She had seen people that were broken and traumatized beyond repair, and she had also seen humans with minds that were intact, even though they were not healthy. The health of a mind was quite a complex matter and she had met all kinds of them, but Shay was the first she had seen of its kind.

His mind was... An enigma. It was as if the trauma he had lived through had a home on the edges of his mind, which was a healthy and strong one. The outside of his mind was dark, cold, and scary, but once M'gann had been able to get through the strong defenses, she found a healthy mind that was filled with hope, awe, and almost a childlike wonder when it came to learning new things.

Before she had entered Shay's mind and seen inside of him, M'gann had not thought she would ever grow to like the man. She had seen from Desmond's mind how efficient men like him were when it came to killing and she thought she would have to not trust them because Kaldur and Robin both said murder was wrong. But as soon as she had entered that haze of darkness, deceit, yet contrasting light and trust, she knew for a fact she could not bring herself to hate Shay.

Besides, the world was not black and white. Maybe her two friends didn't care to understand why some people were driven to kill, but she had seen and felt enough pain from others to know that she could make her own decisions about life without having to worry about her friends not accepting her. They already knew she was a white martian and had accepted her for it. She doubted they would judge her for siding with a man like Shay.

Kaldur nodded at the girl's admission, then asked, "And what have you learned?" with a bit of worry.

M'gann was a girl of smiles and happiness. Seeing her actually being serious let him know that they were not going to have a lighthearted conversation.

"Shay has explained to me the conflict between Assassins and Templars. And he expressed his wholehearted wish for us to be educated about it before we allowed Desmond's kind words to sway us to sympathize with the Assassins." She breathed out after a moment, then continued, "I can't tell you with complete certainty which is the good guy and which is the bad guy when it comes the Assassins and the Templars, but I can at least assure you that there is much more to the story than what we already know."

Kaldur frowned softly at her words, crossed his arms, then asked, "Just what, exactly, did Shay tell you?"

"He showed me his life, Kaldur." She answered softly, face softening with what Kaldur could tell was sympathy, "You understand how hard it is to open up to a complete stranger, Kaldur, so you already know that Shay doing having done this shows how much he truly wants us to trust him."

She silenced after saying this and waited for Kaldur to tell her anything, but he didn't. So she took the silence as permission and began to explain everything Shay had allowed and insisted she say.

* * *

"Now, Robin, would you lead us to a room where we can be alone?" Desmond asked after he had finished his last slice of pizza.

They now sat all along the family room, all the teenager's lounging comfortably in their spaces. Wally, Robin, and Zatanna were seated on the sofa with their phones in hand and a pizza box in Wally's left. Con was seated on the other sofa with Artemis beside him and Connor to her left. And Shay, Desmond, and Ezio were seated on the single seating chairs and recliners that were left.

After he had finished eating his pizza, Shay had hoped that Desmond would have forgotten about trying to get them to get to know each other better, but apparently the younger male was quite persistent when he wanted to be.

Robin looked up from the website he had been reading, quirked an eyebrow at the four assassins, then pointed out, "It's getting kind of late, don't you think? It's already about eleven at night... Maybe you should get some rest before you start discussing the really heavy things."

Desmond had grown to kind of like Robin in the time he had spent with the kids. Sure, he was annoying, too jokeful and hyper, and seemed to always have an answer for everything you said, but he was alright. Besides, it's not like Desmond could really fault him for being so wary about him and the other Assassins. They _had_ appeared out of nowhere with a rather odd and confusing explanation.

But just because he liked the kid didn't mean he enjoyed being stalled. He had a group of Assassins to get together and he needed to be able to speak with them to explain everything that was going, an explanation that would have to be much more in depth than the one given to the kids if he wanted everything to run smoothly. There _was_ a world at stake, after all.

"Listen, kid, I need to be able to speak with these guys." Desmond stood up, squaring his shoulders to try and seem as authoritative as he could. "Play time is over, the grown ups have to talk now."

Robin quirked an eyebrow at the man, as if silently asking if Desmond really wanted to go there, but shook his head and smiled up at him, "I'm pretty sure you're all tired, Desmond. And I know for a fact that Shay shouldn't be awake for so long without resting because of the injuries he sustained. How about you calm down and follow our advice? I promise you'll get your chance to speak privately."

Desmond did not like the kid's tone.

Not once had he thought these kids were dumb, not even when he first arrived in this new world. They were clearly something he had never seen before in his life and this had been proved with Zatanna's... Whatever that thing back at the museum was. But he had been hoping they would be innocent and naïve enough to not question him or his ancestors. Clearly, they did not trust them yet.

But before he could try to worm his way into being allowed to speak with his ancestors privately, Shay stood up from his seat while he clutched at his ribs. Desmon quirked an eyebrow at him, but didn't say anything.

"I would like to take you up on that offer, Robin." Shay said, smiling softly at the boy.

He knew it was only a matter of time before Desmond, Ezio, and Connor figured out that he was purposely stalling any kind of private conversation with them, but at least for now he knew that Robin was suspicious enough of them to not leave them alone in the same room. The boy's suspicion worked in favor of Shay and he was going to use this stroke of luck for as long as he could.

Robin stood up from the couch with Wally, then smiled at all four men. "Luckily for you guys, this place has an array of unused bedrooms that you can use. _Unluckily_ , though, most of those rooms are filled with clutter created by our predecessors, so you'll have to share rooms with us guys until we're able to clear them out."

Shay knew for a fact that there supposedly being clutter in all the rooms they could use was no coincidence, but for once he didn't mind the subterfuge being used. It worked in his favor because it assured that his secret would stay hidden for a bit longer.

"And because you'll be stuck with one of us for tonight, we're being gracious enough to let you choose with who you want to room." Wally smiled at them all, green eyes shining with happiness.

Apparently, either he did not know what Robin was doing or he just didn't care. Desmond was annoyed with the children treating them like this, but breathed in and shook his head.

"I don't mind." He lied, smiling, "You and me, Robin?"

Robin's eyes crinkled and his smile faltered for a second, but it was barely perceivable. "Perfect, Desmond."

Shay was glad that those two were so busy being at each other's throats. If Desmond was too focused on trying to get past Robin's plans he would not pay too much attention at Shay's purposeful stalling.

"And you, Ezio? Who would you like to room with?" Wally asked, which made the Italian man smile broadly and point at Con.

The clone's eyes widened for a second, clearly surprised by Ezio's choice, but soon his shock was replaced with nonchalance, "Okay." He shrugged, but his demeanor of indifference was soon dashed away by surprise by Ezio suddenly appearing beside him and hugging him tightly, " _Mio amico!"_

Shay smiled softly at Con's red face, but he soon turned to Connor, who was blinking in confusion at everything going on around him. Poor lad.

"I think Connor should room with you, Wally." Zatanna pipped up, and Wally turned to her with a questioning face, "Well, you've already spoken to him and you _were_ there when we found him in the museum. Maybe he would be more comfortable with you than with Kaldur, seeing how he's known you for just a bit longer."

Connor blinked, but spoke up, "I would not mind sharing with Wallace."

This made a large smile split the red head's face, but Robin spoke up before he could say anything that might have scared the Mohawk off, "Which means Shay will be staying in Kaldur's room. Artemis, can you go tell our great leader about the room arrangements while we go ahead and start getting the guys to their rooms?"

The blonde girl looked at her friend with a face that clearly read, 'you really expect me to get up from the couch?', but sighed and lazily got up from the furniture to make her way in the direction Kaldur and M'gann had gone in some ten minutes ago. Shay followed her figure up until it disappeared behind those swooshing doors- just what made them open and close without any type of warning?- then turned to Robin once more.

His face was composed in the very unreadable expression he adopted most of the time, but in the back of his mind he was rejoicing. M'gann had already been swayed by his sad tale and she believed wholeheartedly that he was a good person wronged by the Assassins. She already trusted him and he was proud of this. Especially because he had not lied to gain that trust. She knew who he really was and how much pain he had come across. Maybe these Assassins weren't bad... But at least the kids would know the truth about both factions instead of lies about the Templars.

So he followed after the teenagers and men with a small glow of happiness and hope in the back of his mind.

* * *

Kaldur's face was a stern frown and M'gann's own was pulled into a stern gaze. Artemis was confused upon finding her friends bearing those types of faces, but she spoke up and interrupted the dense silence that had reigned over them.

"We're getting the Assassins ready to go to bed." She said, looking from M'gann to Kaldur with a cocked eyebrow.

M'gann turned to her, eyes wide because she was apparently surprised by Artemis speaking up, but Kaldur's frown stayed in place as his gaze was focused on the computer screens in front of them.

"Are you sure this is _exactly_ what you saw in Shay Cormac's mind, M'gann?" He finally asked, looking at M'gann with steely eyes. "These... _Facts_ could cause discord among the four men with us right now."

M'gann nodded softly, "I have searched his mind front and back, Kaldur, the Assassins in his time were corrupt, greedy, dangerous. He turned to the Templar cause because he felt it was the right one. The only one that would not harm innocents while searching for the truth."

Kaldur's whole body was tense his face read of... Was that worry, Artemis wondered.

"This means we are going to have to invade all of their minds..." Kaldur finally sighed out, spitting the words out in anger. He had never liked the idea of probing someone's mind without their consent. "Robin already has his suspicion of their reasons and Batman did not like the idea of having them in the Mountain. If they are anything like the Assassins from Shay's time, we are in trouble."

Artemis was confused. And worried. She looked from one teammate to another, then shook her head and butted into their conversation. She would not be ignored.

"Kaldur, M'gann, please tell me you aren't planning on invading these guys' minds."

They both turned to her with frowns, but Kaldur sighed and relented, "I do not enjoy this course any more than you do, Artemis, but Shay speaks of a great betrayal done to him by the Assassins."

The blonde, though, shook her own head and asked, "Isn't he an assassin too? Why would he still be one if he was betrayed?"

"He isn't one." M'gann answered immediately, "Not anymore..." Now the green skinned teen looked away, "He is a Templar."

Her two friends were really starting to worry her. Artemis knew for a fact that neither of them enjoyed exerting their powers forcefully on others so she knew that they would never _willingly_ want to probe through someone's mind. And she knew enough about the whole Assassin/Templar thing because of what she had learned from listening to the men and reading their body language to know that they were mortal enemies.

"He's a Templar." She repeated dumbly, then glared, "Aren't they the very people that want to control humanity?"

"It's not like that, Artemis!" M'gann defended, but her friend only shook her head.

"Megs, we don't know these guys. We barely know anything about their world other than what Desmond has told us. You _hate_ imposing you powers on others, yet you're already planning on doing just that to those three men out there?" She pointed out the door, hissing through her teeth, "Those men that have done nothing but make us laugh, smile, and have done _nothing_ to make us suspect them?"

They all fell into silence after she had spoken up and Artemis knew she had beaten them in the argument. She knew her friends too much to allow herself to think they would ever want to choose this road willingly.

"You haven't seen what I did, Artemis." M'gann whispered, then looked at her friend directly in the eyes. "Those Assassins were out of control! They would have destroyed the world if Shay had not stopped them!"

"Have you ever stopped to question Shay's innocence?" Artemis growled out, "You want to invade Ezio's, Connor's, and Desmond's minds before giving them the chance to _tell us_ their stories. So, if you're so willing to do this to them, did you ever think that maybe Shay _wanted_ you to do this very thing?"

M'gann took a step back, mouth opening and closing even though no sound came out. Artemis took this as her chance to finish up the discussion and stop them from going through with their plans.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but Desmond is the very _Assassin_ that came to our world to stop the destruction of his own. He has answered all our questions and has not lied to us yet. _None_ of these men, not even Shay." Now she breathed out and continued, albeit softer, "I'm not telling you who's right and who's wrong, M'gann... I can't say I know enough to say that. But I do know that none of these men have given us any reason to suspect them. How about before we start probing through their minds we give them the chance to explain themselves?"

Kaldur had been quiet for most of the argument, but now he spoke up, "I feel the same as you do, Artemis, believe me. I just do not know what to do other than have M'gann search through their minds. If we asked them to their face, they could lie-"

"They wouldn't."

Kaldur raised an eyebrow at her interruption, "And how would you be sure, Artemis? Just like we should not trust Shay so easily, we cannot take everything they say without questioning it."

But Artemis was sure of what she was saying now, "They wouldn't lie, Kaldur, because they have no reason to. Those that have reason to lie would, much like Shay did when he told us he was an Assassin." She knew she was hurting M'gann with her honestly, but everything needed to be said before they did anything brash, "What would Ezio and Connor have to lie about, anyway? We know they're killers. They have their reasons."

With a sigh, Kaldur agreed, "We must give them _all_ the benefit of the doubt. The conflict between Templars and Assassins is not our own, we cannot allow ourselves to grow too close to it." Then he looked at M'gann and placed his hand softly on her shoulder, "I shall tell Batman of everything you have told me. Then I shall consult him and ask him what the best course of action would be. Until then, let us not grow heated. Let their struggles remain in their world. Here we are all heroes and friends. What happened in their home is of little importance to us."

M'gann closed her eyes and nodded softly, but said nothing. Both Kaldur and Artemis felt bad because they knew she had been hurt by all of this.

~/~

"What has been discussed in this room cannot leave it." Kaldur told both the girls, who nodded. "The matters between Templars and Assassins have no place causing discord between us. We cannot our personal feelings to blind us from this."

Artemis rubbed at her upper arm with guilt gnawing away at her because she knew that she already believed in the Assassins' way of thinking. Those Templars sounded wretched. Apparently, M'gann thought differently.

"This will be kept between us three, no one else from the Team needs to be burdened with this conflict." Kaldur warned, then looked at Artemis. "What are the sleeping arrangements?"

M'gann took this as her queue to leave the room, so she flew out of the room and towards her own. She hoped that some deep thought would allow her to clear her mind.

Artemis looked after the fleeing Martian and sighed, "I was too hard with her."

"M'gann was firm in her belief that the Assassins among us could cause us harm. I am afraid both she and Shay have grown too close to one another. This are events I never though we would have to deal with." Kaldur sighed heavily as he walked towards the only chair in the room.

He fell almost gracelessly onto it then raised his hand to place his head in it. Artemis frowned at the teenager, who looked much too burdened and defeated to be so young, but spoke up, "It's not going to get any easier, you know. Those men are bound to grow closer to one of us and we are going to feel the same about them. Even though Superboy doesn't want to acknowledge it, he's pretty much already Ezio's friend already. Give him some time and Ezio will be calling him _fratello_."

Kaldur groaned at that but nodded, "The forming ties between us and the Assassins are worrying, Artemis. With what happened just now with M'gann I am worried that this could cause us to lose our way... To begin fighting amongst each other over beliefs that have no reason in this world."

Artemis bowed her head, "You know... This doesn't have to be our problem. We could have them over to the Justice League and-" She stopped herself upon noticing Kaldur's questioning look. "Yeah, you're right. Wally would never let us... Besides, we're old and smart enough to be able to put our feelings aside to complete the mission."

"Exactly." Kaldur frowned, "And our mission is to gather all the men that could come from Desmond's world then help the return. Their inner conflicts have nothing to do with us."

Even though he said this, they both knew that the conflict would not stay where it belonged. Not when there was a Templar among the Assassins.

"Now, I believe we are too tired to think straight. With whom shall I be rooming?" Kaldur questioned as he stood up from the chair and began to walk outside of the room.

Artemis followed after him and answered, "Shay. Connor is with Wally, Desmond with Robin, and Ezio; of course; will be staying with Con."

Kaldur breathed out heavily and said, "It seems already the tight friendships are forming. Let us hope we are able to overcome our own feelings... Good night, Artemis. I shall see you in the morning."

They both parted ways and went into their own rooms, both with heavy hearts that were filled with dozens of worries.

 **Please review.**


	13. Chapter 13

When he woke up, Ezio had a small smile on his face. He had no idea what was going on or why he was in a world that was nothing like his own, but at least he had found a friend in the young boy known as Conner. The boy was clearly too shy and quiet to admit it out loud, but Ezio liked him very much and enjoyed the fact that he did not need the translator girl around to be able to communicate with him.

He reminded him of the younger brother he once had, many years ago. It hurt, honestly, to think of the family he had lost, but now, after the years had passed, he was at least able to admit that he could move forward from their murders.

Conner was sleeping blissfully on the comfortable bed he called his own, the covers pulled up loosely over his body. He clutched at the comforter, though, rather tightly and his face spoke of an innocence the boy did not allow anyone to see. Ezio found it rather cute how he put up such a brave front, yet could be so quiet and _cute_ when asleep.

After a moment or so of remembering his own brothers, Ezio got up from his bed and padded out of the room, trying to remember the way the halls twisted and turned so he could arrive at the kitchen. It took him quite a few minutes and a few wrong turns, but still Ezio made it to the kitchen all by himself without too much trouble.

Once there, he was met by the young green skinned girl and her demeanor worried him. She was standing in front of the oven dejectedly, her shoulders slumped and her lips pouting at the sight of the broken oven door.

Ezio knew that the broken door was partly his fault, so he apologized as softly as he could, "I am sorry for the damage we caused." And when she turned to him with wide eyes, he smiled kindly at her, "If you would allow, I would like to make up for the damage. Any way you'd like."

The girl's brown eyes widened for a moment, then she smiled softly at him with a shake of her head, "Don't worry about it, Ezio. It was an honest mistake. Besides, nobody was hurt." After she said this, the girl turned around and began to rummage through the cabinets above her head, "Would you like some breakfast? I was going to make myself an omelet."

Ezio's face immediately lit up at the prospect of food, and he nodded, "Yes please. If it is no bother, of course."

He saw her shoulders shrug for a moment, then she spoke up, "It's no bother at all, Ezio. I'm used to making breakfast for Conner and myself. But the rest of the Team usually wakes up later than we do, so they fend for themselves."

She began to take out odd looking jars from the cabinets then she made her way over to the refrigerator- a contraption Ezio was still marvelled by- and pulled out a container of sorts. Ezio's eyes were wide at the sight of all the different things she pulled out, but instead of curiously inquiring about what they were, he only leaned by the doorway and smiled at her.

They found themselves in a comfortable type of silence as M'gann worked, and Ezio found himself content with the moment. It was quiet, but not tense. It was peaceful. And when M'gann broken the silence to ask him a question, Ezio was pleasantly surprised by what she asked.

"Could you tell me of Italia?" The girl asked hopefully, turning around from a bowl on the counter to look at Ezio, "I see small glimpses of your life every time I connect your mind to my own so I am able to translate and... Well... Everything looks so colorful and beautiful."

Hearing her description of what she had seen made Ezio smile and nod, "Italy is quite the beautiful place, no?" He asked, then nodded once more, "I will tell you about it. Would you like me to tell you of Leonardo? I believe I should start with that crazy person."

M'gann giggled slightly at this but nodded, "Yes, please."

And so Ezio began his long and descriptive explanation of Leonardo, his workshop, and all the crazy things he created, along with his artistic and slightly eccentric side. After he had finished telling her of him, Ezio told her of his mother and sister and how they were doing so well even with the type of business they had taken up. And after this he told M'gann of the beautiful buildings to be found, even though there was poverty and sickness to be found in the less fortunate sectors of his home.

The red headed girl listened to all the stories with a fascinated smile on her face, and it never wavered, no matter how much Ezio said or how lost he became in his self. He could lose himself in a thread so deeply that even he was not sure what he had started off explaining, but M'gann always remembered and helped him correct himself when this happened.

"All in all, Megan, I am sure you would love to visit my home." Ezio finished with a large smile, at the same time M'gann walked over to him with one plate of food in each of her hands.

She smiled up at him, and nodded, "I am sure you are right, Ezio." She offered him one plate of food now, "Here's an omelet. I wasn't sure what you'd like in it and didn't want to stop you from telling me about your home, so I just-"

Ezio raised his hand to stop her and took the plate from her hand, "There is no need to apologize for that, Megan. You offered me food, I will eat it. As simple as that."

M'gann seemed slightly taken aback by his honesty, but she soon smiled and nodded. "Okay then."

So she led him over to the bar outside the kitchen and sat there, motioning for Ezio to sit beside her. And once they were both sat down and eating, she began to tell him of Conner, her friends, her new home, and all the hardships she had faced ever since leaving her home to join her uncle, all the while Ezio listened with complete delight. She did not tell him much about her home before arriving at Happy Harbor, but he did not ask. There must have been a reason for her omitting. He would not press.

* * *

"How many more are awake?" Kaldur asked M'gann as both he and Shay entered the kitchen to find both Ezio and M'gann laughing softly at something that the man had said.

"Oh, hello, Kaldur." M'gann smiled at her leader when she noticed him, but that smile became larger upon seeing Shay. "Shay! How did you sleep? Would you like some breakfast? I made Ezio and I some omelets and he said he liked them!"

Shay smiled softly at the girl's enthusiasm as she turned to Ezio.

"They were good, right?"

"Delicious!" Ezio agreed, looking at Shay with mirth in his eyes, "This girl can really cook. You should let her make yours."

Shay chuckled at the two's enthusiasm but still nodded. "I now have to try them."

The smile M'gann gave him was enough for him to not be bothered too much by her apparent closeness to Ezio. Instead of asking anything, Shay just sat down in the same chair he had sat the day before and watched as M'gann began to flit across the kitchen, beginning to prepare the food. She offered to make one for Kaldur as well, but the teenager politely declined and served himself some simple cereal.

After he had finished serving his breakfast, Kaldur bid his goodbye and walked out of the kitchen, leaving Shay, Ezio, and M'gann in companionable silence. Shay looked at Ezio from the corner of his eyes and decided, after a few minutes, that the man was no threat. He may have been known as Il Mentore in Shay's time but the man that stood before him now was much too young and carefree to be that.

He may have worn the Assassins robes but this man had not yet reached his most dangerous phase. And he seemed to have grown a soft spot for the kids, so he would have no reason to try and harm them.

As long as no harm came to M'gann or the rest, Shay could at least tolerate the Assassins. That didn't mean he wanted to talk to them privately, though. He still did not want them to find out he was not an Assassin anymore.

"Shay, did you know about this oven?" Ezio asked, grabbing the man's attention with the question. "It concentrates a fire onto a small type of pan! It is like having an oven, but not really!"

M'gann chuckled at the explanation as she cracked open three eggs, then began to whisk them.

"Really?" Shay asked, actually intrigued by it. "Is that not witchcraft?"

Ezio shook his head with a smile and explained, "It is technology! You see, apparently they have this thing called electricity!"

Shay listened with rapt attention as Ezio went on this lengthy explanation about just what electricity was and how it served to make life now so much easier, then how it helped make the rest of technology work. Apparently M'gann had explained all of this to him some minutes ago and he had been excited to relate what he had learned to someone else. And Shay just listened, actually fascinated with what he was hearing. For he may have seen what oddity Benjamin Franklin had come up with, but seeing and hearing its many uses was quite fascinating.

* * *

When Batman arrived at the Mountain, Kaldur had been waiting for him for about five minutes. Shay, M'gann, and Ezio were all in the kitchen, much too far away to hear the Zeta Machine's announcement of Batman's arrival, and the rest of his teammates were sleeping. Desmond and Connor were both still sleeping in their respective rooms.

"Batman." Kaldur nodded stiffly, face devoid of any emotions.

The stoic man looked down at the teen with his own stony face, nodded in acknowledgment, then began to walk towards the communications hub. Kaldur followed without uttering a single word, already accustomed to the man's silence.

"Where is the rest of the Team?" Batman asked in his gravelly tone, voice low.

"M'gann is in the kitchen preparing breakfast for one of our visitors and the rest of the Team is asleep." Kaldur informed, omitting anything pertaining to the men that were in the Mountain with them.

Normally, he would give Batman every single little detail. But now he didn't dare say anything that the Bat didn't ask about. The memory of his small discussion with M'gann and Artemis the past night was still rather fresh. He would like to avoid another like that with the rest of his Team.

"And your new guests?"

The doors to the communications hub swooshed open at that point and both heroes stepped inside. Kaldur chanced a glance at the Bat, noticed his ever steely demeanor, and answered in a cold voice, "Two are in the kitchen with M'gann. The rest are still sleeping."

Batman made his way over to the computers and began to type away at one, even though Kaldur stayed standing in the middle of the room.

"And where did they sleep last night? I had been under the impression that the rooms not used by the Team were still filled with items that belonged to the Justice League."

Kaldur's eyes followed everything that happened on the screen of the computer, but still answered, "They still are. Robin decided that the best course of action would be to have the men under supervision and separated while the slept. Each one of the male members slept with one of those men in our rooms. Shay Cormac was in my room."

Batman's typing froze for a moment, the words having apparently sunk into him. Then the man turned around and faced Kaldur fully. He seemed to have become worried with what Kaldur had said, because he seemed even tenser than before.

"Did one of them sleep in the same room as Robin?"

Kaldur nodded silently, facing forward and never flinching. Like the good soldier he was.

Batman immediately walked up to the teenager and asked, "Who?"

Deep inside himself, Kaldur wanted to run away from the bad Bat and not have to face him. But he was the leader of his team and so, all their choices fell on his shoulders. It may not have been his fault nor may he have had control when Robin made the decision to sleep in the same room as the- assumed- smartest Assassin of the bunch, but in the Bat's eyes it was all on him.

"Desmond Miles. The Assassin from the present."

Behind the Bat's mask, Kaldur imagined all sorts of different emotions. Maybe anger. Annoyance could have been one. Maybe even worry. But the Bat's face was cold, unfeeling, and he soon turned back to the computer and strolled back to the screens without saying anything else.

A few minutes of him typing away at the keyboard, Kaldur saw what seemed like footage from inside the Mountain itself appear on the screen. And his eyes widened when he made out the figures of his teammates and Shay Cormac standing around a confused looking Desmond Miles.

"There are cameras inside the cave?" He asked, allowing his confusion to slip into his before neutral voice.

"Of course." Batman grunted, stating it as if it were nothing new. "The League needs to make sure you are not up to anything dangerous while in here. We installed them after the fiasco with the Light."

A burst of unfounded anger made its way into Kaldur. Did the Justice League really think them children? Had they not proved their worth long ago?

"They are barely used. There is no reason to ever look at the footage." Batman told him in a voice filled with indifference, "But seeing how this situation is much too serious to allow _anything_ to be beyond our control, I believe it a good thing we had them installed. Wouldn't you agree?"

Kaldur's fists clenched and un-clenched as he breathed in deeply, then he answered, "Of course." With sharp anger barely concealed.

They both fell into a tense silence then as Batman began to watch the security footage from the night before.

* * *

By the time the rest of the Team had awoken, Shay had decided that Ezio was too happy and ignorant to be a real danger. Of course, he still did not know just how _efficient_ he was, but that would have to wait for later. Clearly, M'gann enjoyed seeing Shay interacting with the Assassin so he would not be too hostile towards the Italian man.

Still, there was something at the back of his head that itched whenever he thought of Connor. Had he really heard Kenway?

Shay looked up from the bar he sat at to look over at the inside of the kitchen, where he could see Zatanna, Artemis, Wally, and Robin all arguing about what they wanted to eat. Ezio sat to Shay's left and M'gann to his right, all the while Connor leaned against the column beside them and Desmond stood with his arms crossed a bit to the Mohawk's left. Con stared at his friends without any real emotions, apparently still too tired to get into the argument.

"I say we should make pancakes! I'm sure Connor over there would love them!" Wally argued, then stuck his tongue out at Artemis as she began to speak.

"That is too complicated for this God forsaken hour, Kid Idiot! Scrambled eggs for everyone!"

Zatanna rolled her eyes at this as she stood beside her red headed teammate, "Come on, Artemis, Wally and I already offered to make pancakes. All you have to do is just sit around like you always do and eat whatever we make."

Robin smiled at the two as he wrapped an arm around Artemis, "Scrambled eggs are much better, Zee. Besides, it's not like we know if these guys can stomach modern day foods. Wouldn't you feel bad if they got sick because they ate something they weren't supposed to."

Zatanna's smile dropped at the thought, but M'gann chose to speak up at that moment, "I made omelets with all kinds of ingredients for both Ezio and Shay, and they both seem like they're fine."

The four teenagers now turned to face Shay and Ezio, who nodded in their own way. Ezio smiled broadly while Shay only nodded with a small smile.

"You see? We can make Connor and Desmond pancakes then. Because I don't think Ezio and Shay would want to eat already." Wally decided then began to scavenge for all of the ingredients they would be using.

As Zatanna waited for Wally and the other two teenagers walked out of the kitchen, both Kaldur and Batman walked out of the communications hub.

Robin perked up upon noticing his mentor, but his momentary happiness was replaced with curiosity and worry when he saw the scowl Kaldur wore. Whatever had been said, Kaldur had most probably gotten thoroughly scolded by the Bat.

~/~

"Team."

All movement inside the kitchen halted the very moment Batman spoke up and they all turned to look outside and see the Bat with their leader. And all of them felt a sense of dread grow inside of them when they noticed Kaldur's face. His lips were down turned in a frown and his eyebrows were knitted together, a perfect scowl. And his normally serene gray eyes spoke of volumes of anger and discontent.

What had happened?

"Come here." Batman commanded and Kaldur made his way so he stood right in front of the Bat.

Wally glanced over at Robin, both sharing confused looks, but they still walked over to where the Bat had pointed. The rest of the Team soon followed and in no time they all stood in a line in front of Batman.

"Kaldur has informed me of your recent guests," He began, voice as stoic as ever, "Wally, what is the first thing you are supposed to do if you ever come in contact with a being from another world?"

Wally's green eyes widened at the sudden question, but he soon answered with, "Uh, tell the nearest Leaguer?"

Batman nodded, "Exactly. Why did it take you more than two hours to inform me of who had arrived?"

All the teens fell into silence now, knowing they were about to be scolded for negligence.

Robin, though, tried to stop the coming scolding, "Come on, Batman! We've all had experience before with people from other worlds! It's always the same routine: Get to know them, promise them to help them get back home, then follow through on said promise." He tried to smile at his mentor, "It's always the same."

Batman's glare let the teen know he was not amused.

"This is _not_ like all the other times Robin. These men are assassins." Batman growled, then glared up at the four men he could see over at the kitchen. "They are too dangerous to leave around Team."

Shay, upon noticing the oddly dressed man's stare on them, stood up with his own eyes narrowed, already feeling the hostility that was turned his way.

"The Justice League has allowed you to keep the Mountain to yourselves after what happened with the Light because we thought you were judicious enough to know when to call us." Batman informed them, only to finish with, "That is why Red Tornado left after having attended Shay. He told us immediately of what had happened and asked us to wait for you to call. Two hours you waited."

"But it's not like we did anything bad, Batman!" Wally tried, only to clamp his mouth with his hands when Batman's glare turned his way.

Artemis, though, didn't care for the Bat glare. "These guys aren't dangerous, Batman." She growled, rolling her eyes. "If they had been, we would have died long ago. Or, better yet, we would have thrown them in jail long ago. Now, I'm hungry and it's too early for this. Come on, Zee."

The blonde dragged the younger girl away from her teammates and towards the kitchen, ignoring the surprised look sent her way by Zatanna.

Batman glared after the two for a moment, then shook his head and looked down at Robin. "Robin, follow me."

He turned around and walked away and Robin hesitated for a moment before following. Still, he knew how serious Batman was at the moment, so he didn't risk angering the man any further. He followed without a single word to his friends.

~/~

After a second of silence, Wally breathed out.

"That was something..."

Kaldur growled in frustration with a shake of his head, "Who does he think he is?"

The rest of the Team looked at him with confusion, and Wally answered with, "The God damned Batman?"

This seemed to make their leader's anger grow, for he groaned in indignation, but instead of saying anything only walked away and towards the kitchen. There he spoke to the four men.

"I am going to need you all to come with me. Please do not ask any questions nor hesitate." He spoke as calmly as he could, even though it was through clenched teeth.

"But they haven't eaten breakfast yet, Kal!" Artemis fought, but Kaldur shook his head.

"Well then, Shay and Ezio, if you would."

The boy's anger was uncharacteristic. Even though neither of the men had known him for too long, they knew well enough that he was a calm soul. Whatever that man had told him must have really angered him.

So Shay stood up with a sigh, "Might as well. Come on, Ezio. Best not let that man continue bothering the kids."

Ezio's face was lacking his own characteristic smile. He frowned, actually, as he followed Kaldur and Shay, because he had found himself growing to not like this 'Batman' because of how he had spoken to the teenagers. And while those two mused about what could have made Kaldur so angry, the boy himself was seething in anger at being treated like a child by Batman.

 **Hope y'all liked it! Please review.**


	14. Chapter 14

Kaldur led both Assassins towards the interview rooms hidden deep inside of the Mountain. They were inside the mountain so deep that Kaldur actually had to stop for a moment and make sure he was heading in the right direction because of just how much they had walked.

Back when the Justice League still used the Mountain, these rooms weren't needed very much. And now that they had the Watchtower, they kept all interviews of villains to the prisons they were confined to. Still, when Batman had laid out the plans of the Mountain, he had decided to put them in just in case they would ever be needed.

Now that the Mountain belonged to the Team, though, the Bat thought he would have to fill those rooms up with concrete to ensure their use would never be found out. He had not wanted the teens to think they were allowed to bring villains inside of their hideout to interrogate them and had been meaning to wipe out all trace of those two rooms some time ago, but he had never fully gotten around to it.

At least now they had private rooms for these odd men and didn't have to take them up to the Watchtower to question them.

"Where are we going?" Shay asked after a few minutes of walking in silence.

Kaldur seemed to bristle slightly, but still answered, "Interrogation rooms. Batman has ordered me to bring you so you can be interrogated by him."

"Interrogated?" Shay repeated, "He is going to question us?"

But before Kaldur could answer the Irishman, Ezio asked, "Just who is this man, _bambino_? He does not seem to be as warm and hospitable as you and the rest of your team have been."

With a sigh, Kaldur nodded, "He is called the Batman. He is the unnamed leader of the hero faction that we operate under. And he is a cold man because... What was it that Robin had said?" But with a soft breath, the Atlantean shook his head, "I cannot remember the explanation Robin had given me. But even though he is treating us as children at the moment, I believe it is only because he cares about our team."

Both Shay and Ezio looked down at the boy as he muttered an 'I think' lowly and quietly, as if he didn't want them to hear, and they shared twin concerned looks. But by the time they had tried to ask Kaldur just what that was supposed to mean, the boy stopped in front of four doors that looked exactly like one another, if not for the numbers that distinguished them at the very center of them.

With another sigh, Kaldur motioned for Shay to follow him into the first door, which was marked with a bold **'** **1'** and opened it to allow him to step inside.

When Shay entered, he took note of the metallic table in the very center of the room, the two metallic chairs on either side of it, and at the mirrors placed right beside the door of the room. It covered the top half of the wall and he couldn't really understand why it was there. The rest of the walls were a mute gray, completely innocuous and not striking in any manner.

"Would you mind if you sit here until I am able to return?" Kaldur asked the man, who took one more look about the room before he turned and shook his head.

"Don't worry about it, kid. Go and do whatever you need to do. I'll stay here and behave."

Kaldur smiled softly at him with a nod, then closed the door behind him and Shay was left alone in this odd room. And after a few minutes of standing around and doing nothing, he moved over to the chair closest to him, sat down, and leaned back on it.

"If Master Kenway could see me now..."

~/~

"M'gann, please come out."

Ezio quirked an eyebrow as the young boy called out for the girl, but he was just a bit shocked when he found the girl suddenly appearing where there had once been the solid color of the wall. She looked down at the floor and had her hands clasped together, which made her seem as if she were already apologizing for having come where she was not supposed to have come.

"I am aware that you are worried for both Ezio and Shay, M'gann, but you cannot try to sneak around the mountain in this manner. Batman would not approve of it." Kaldur reprimanded, gray eyes soft.

But the green skinned girl shook her head, "It's not fair, Kaldur! I have already asked Shay about everything Batman could possibly need! He doesn't need to drag him all the way down here to question him further." Then she looked around where she found herself and questioned softly, "Just where are we, Kaldur? I don't remember seeing this in the schematics of the Mountain."

"That is because this was not a part of the schematics, M'gann." Kaldur told her honestly. "I believe Batman decided it would be in the best interest of the Team to keep this part of the Mountain a secret."

M'gann's face twisted slightly at her leader's words, and asked, "Why would Batman hide this from us? Does he not trust us, Kaldur?"

"I do not know, M'gann..." The teen shook his head, then looked up at the Italian man with them. "If you will, Ezio."

And with this, the boy led the Assassin into the room that was marked with a bold **'** **2'** , where it was set up almost identical to the room Shay had been placed in. Ezio looked back at both teenagers behind him, as if asking them just what he was supposed to be doing there without ever speaking. But instead of fighting back and demanding to know why he was being forced into the room, Ezio took a step inside and made his way towards the chair.

"I shall be back in a few minutes." Kaldur promised, even though his voice lacked much of the conviction Ezio had gotten accustomed to hearing from the boy.

A few seconds after having said this, the door closed and Ezio was separated from both teens.

M'gann looked at Kaldur, "This is not right. They should not be treated this way: as if they were common criminals!"

"I know they are not, M'gann. But Batman has a reason to distrust them." Kaldur told her with steely eyes, even though on the inside he too felt annoyed with the Bat treating his Team as if they were nothing more than just children to be taught and guided, "They arrived out of _nowhere,_ M'gann. And while their stories do add up, we can never be sure of who is here with pure intentions and who is here with cruel ones."

The Martian did not like the fact that the Atlantean was actually giving some explanation as to why the Bat would do what he was doing, but instead of arguing further with him, the girl nodded and looked in the direction they had come from.

"Are you going to tell the rest of the Team about these rooms?" She asked, glancing back at the other teen.

"I am not sure. I do not think Batman would want the rest to know of this place." He answered, looking around the halls they were surrounded by before began to walk back in the direction of the main spot of the Mountain.

But before he could get too far, M'gann appeared in front of him and stopped him by splaying her hand out in front of him, motioning for him to stop immediately.

"My question was not if Batman would like us to know about this place, Kaldur." She told him with a stern gaze, lips drawn tight, "My question was if you were going to be telling the rest of the Team about this place." She finished, looking somewhat annoyed at Kaldur's own words.

For a moment, Kaldur looked right at her eyes. But after a second or two, he shook his head and looked down at the floor with a shake of his head, "I am not sure. I do not know what I am to do now, M'gann. If I tell the Team about these rooms, Batman will most probably punish me... But if I keep this secret from them... I do not want to think of what they might do..."

M'gann's eyes softened at her leader's admittance, "Don't think like that, Kal. I highly doubt the Team would do anything to you for following Batman's rules..."

"Are you so sure?" He asked suddenly, looking at her with turmoil raging inside of his eyes. "Do you not remember how you confronted me not more than a few minutes ago for following his orders and bringing Shay and Ezio down here?"

Then, without allowing her to say anything else, Kaldur walked back to the main room of the Mountain, feeling deep inside of himself the inner turmoil Batman had most probably unknowingly unleashed. What was he to do? Tell his team about where he was to take Connor and Desmond later or keep quiet about it and hope they did not question him about it?

With a sigh, he brought his hand up to pinch at the bridge of his nose and shake his head. The Bat did not make anything easy, did he?

* * *

"He's not a very chipper person, is he?" Desmond had asked as soon as the Bat left the kids with Robin following behind him.

Artemis had rolled her eyes but nodded as she began to cook up the food for herself and their guests.

"He only means the best." Zatanna told them in a soft tone of voice, as if she herself did not fully know if this was true. But it _was_ what Robin had told her once. "I'm sure he's only worried about us and Robin."

"Yeah, that's why Kaldur looked so happy when he walked out here." Wally muttered as he made his way over to the kitchen, lips pursed and eyebrows drawn in because of annoyance. "Just what could the big bad Bat have told him that would have him looking as if he's favorite candy had been stolen from him? Not that he likes candy, or whatever, but... You know..."

Con looked at the red head then shook his head and shrugged, "Kaldur's the leader. He most probably got punished for having allowed us to keep Desmond and the rest here for 'so long' without alerting the League."

"But it was only two hours! It's not as if we kept their presence hidden for a day!" Wally argued back, which made the superpowered clone look at him in slight annoyance.

"You don't have to tell _me_ that! Why don't you try and explain it to the Bat?" Con growled in frustration, which made Wally take a step back and raise his hands in defense.

"Sorry, Con... Didn't mean to set you off." Wally apologized.

Con looked at his friend for a second, then his face fell and he crossed his arms, "I'm sorry too, Wally. It's just... It's kind of early to deal with everything."

Wally nodded at him, then looked over at the two guests that had been allowed to stay with them for a while longer. "How are you two holding up?"

Connor quirked an eyebrow at the almost innocent question, but answered with, "This Batman does not seem like a nice person. Who is he to you?"

All of the teenagers exchanged glances at that point, and Artemis breathed out softly, "He's the... Well, he's the person that sends us on all of our assignments."

"But apart from that, he's Robin's mentor." Zatanna added as she began to help Artemis with the pancake mix. "We don't really know too much about them other than that they are the Dynamic Duo from Gotham and that Batman is scary."

"You know nothing of them yet you work with them?" Connor inquired, head cocked to the side. "Do you trust them?"

"It's..." Artemis began to say, but Wally cut in.

"Confusing. But they're both people that work for the greater good." The red head spoke in a kind and calm tone, which made sense because he was the one on the Team that knew the most about the duo from Gotham. "We don't have to know all of their secrets to trust them. It doesn't work like that here."

After a moment of thought, Desmond spoke up, albeit slowly, "Well... If you think you get it all... Do you know where Kaldur took Shay and Ezio? Because I really wanted to be able to speak with all of these guys after breakfast..." Then he cracked a smile, "I'm starting to get the feeling that you don't want me to have any alone time with them. Isn't that silly?"

All of the teens remained silent for a moment, then Wally chuckled. "Completely silly, Desmond. Why would we do that?"

But the teenagers all knew Robin well enough to have known what his intentions had been when he had first indirectly denied Desmond the chance to speak alone with the other three men. They were not fools, after all. And they understood why the bird didn't want to give them any chance to plot or align their stories. It was just a bat thing to do to always distrust any newcomers.

"Now are you guys as hungry as I am? 'Cause I feel like I'm about to die from hunger!" The speedy teen groaned out with a smile, glancing over at Artemis to see how far along she and Zatanna had gotten with the pancake mix.

"It's just a few more minutes." Zatanna answered with a roll of her eyes, smile in place. "You can wait them, Wally."

The boy groaned once more and threw himself at the counter dramatically, but eventually turned around to continue speaking with their guests with a smile. Desmond was amused by the kid's antics, but he knew for a fact that he had been kept from speaking with the other three visitors because Robin did not want them to get together and speak.

He would just have to find a way to speak with the other three. His mission depended on acquiring all of his ancestors that came from the past before they returned to his world. And he would have to get them all on the same page if he wanted to succeed.

At thinking about his mission, Desmond began to think about all of his friends back home. Shaun, Rebecca, and, even though it kind of hurt to admit, his father... Lucy was long gone... And Desmond resented Juno for having made him kill the woman he had loved. But now he couldn't change any of the past. The only thing he was able to control, actually, was the fate of the planet. And for that he would have to return all of his ancestor's to their rightful to prevent the world from ending.

The more he thought about what his life had become, the sadder he became. He had never asked to have the weight of the whole world on his shoulders, yet there it was... Pressing over him like an overbearing restraint he would never be able to get rid of.

So deeply he had been in his own thoughts that he didn't notice when Zatanna placed a plate of four large pancakes in front of him. But he did notice when Connor nudged him softly with his elbow. Dumbly he glanced over at his ancestor, slightly confused, but then saw him motioning for his plate of food and he noticed that his breakfast was ready and already in front of him.

"Thank you." He told the girls in a tone of voice that let them know his mind hadn't fully caught up with what had happened, and they only smiled and nodded at him.

The teenagers and the two adults fell into a comfortable silence as they ate their own breakfasts, and Desmond noted with slight amazement that Wally ate a whole lot more food than a teenager that skinny ever should, but didn't comment on it. Instead he found himself sinking back into his saddening thoughts, soon enough the smiling face of Lucy suddenly at the very front of his mind.

He ate his food without barely tasting it, but still thanked the girls for the delicious meal once he had finished and handed them back their food. And, after a second of them having given the plates back, Batman appeared with Robin at his side, the kid frowning deeply as they neared.

"Have they finished eating?" Batman asked the teenagers, "Kaldur informed me that he had left them here to allow them to eat."

Wally ran to stand beside Conner, then nodded, "Yeah. They finished right now."

"Good." The Bat nodded stiffly, "Then they can come with me. Robin, stay with your team. Run your drills." He commanded, which made the boy nod stiffly.

Desmond noted this with uncertainty, for he did not know if he wanted the kid to be in a good or bad mood, but stood up and motioned for Connor to follow.

Batman turned his back to the two and began to walk away, even though he didn't even make sure they were following. But Desmond had enough sense to know to follow the man that seemed to control everything the kids did, and Connor followed Desmond because he knew this was a man he could trust in this strange world.

But the deeper both of them were led inside the mountain, Desmond was not sure if he had done right by following the man clad in black. Because he had the distinct feeling growing in his gut that he would not enjoy whatever was going to happen next.

And when he was told to enter the room with a bold number **'3'** on it, Desmond was more than sure that he was _so_ not going to enjoy whatever came next.

 **Please review. And I'm sorry for not updating in such a long time. This chapter was unbelievably and inexplicably hard to write. Still, here it is!**


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